Pope Francis’ approach to climate change is surprising. He affirms practical and common-sense wisdom about how to care for the environment – for example, by turning down the heat, using less plastic, and reducing water use – but his encyclical also contains a much broader diagnosis of why we should be worried about climate change.… Read More 7 Surprising Ways that Pope Francis’ Encyclical is Calling You to Change
Occasionally, I’ll come across a movie on TV that features Robin Williams in one of his many famous and brilliant roles. I’m a huge fan of so many of his movies (from his family comedies to his more serious pieces), and it’s always great to catch one unexpectedly on a lazy Sunday afternoon. However, now… Read More Suicide and Man’s Search for Meaning
Every week seems to bring a new chapter in the debate over Archbishop Cordileone’s additions to the San Francisco teachers’ handbook. Opponents of the additions argue that the Church should be more inclusive, while supporters affirm that a Catholic archbishop should not be forced to change Church teaching based on prevailing public opinion. This ongoing… Read More Stop Calling the SF Handbook Additions a Morality Clause
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer often get lumped together as middle-school books, 19th-century young-adult novels. After all, the two books share a central cast of characters and concern themselves with the often miscreant adventures of pre-teen boys. Yet Huckleberry Finn is a much more serious book, and it has… Read More How to Think Like Huck Finn
Pope Francis’ Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy may at first glance strike many as a bureaucratic document of little interest to Christians around the world. Reading the text of Misericordiae Vultus, though, makes it clear that this document is anything but unimportant. Francis has given us a beautiful meditation on the… Read More Mercy is a Person: Reflections on the Papal Bull “Misericordiae Vultus”
Today marks the 500th birthday of St. Teresa of Avila, the saint whose name I took at my confirmation. Teresa is a looming figure in Catholic history. A reformer, writer, and mystic, she was one of the first women to be named a Doctor of the Church, an honor which acknowledges the saint’s important theological… Read More The Way of Perfection: Carmelites in Contemporary Life
In the two years since Pope Francis’ election, the phrase “Francis Effect” has come to describe the unique impact of Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s papacy. But what exactly is the Francis Effect? Can we measure it? Is it real? In evaluating the Francis Effect, there are two components to consider: the popular media’s narrative and the… Read More Is the Francis Effect Real?
Millennial 