NCR has some outstanding coverage of the new Vatican document “Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System.” Here are three thoughtful op-eds to check out from their site: Stephen Schneck writes: The Vatican’s economic document does not disappoint. It calls into question the failure of regulators to address the… Read More Why Americans Should Pay Attention to the Vatican’s New Economic Document

Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, speaks at Google about religion and the opening up of the mind:

Here are some highlights from the new Vatican document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development,“Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System”: What is needed, on the one hand, is an appropriate regulation of the dynamics of the markets… Read More Vatican Critiques Free Market Ideology, Calls for New Forms of Economy and Finance

via NY Times: A Chilean survivor of clerical sex abuse has said that Pope Francis told him in a private meeting this month that God had made him gay and that both God and the pontiff loved him that way, a remarkable expression of inclusion for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church. “He said… Read More Gay Man Says Pope Told Him: ‘God Made You This Way and Loves You This Way’

In a new Vatican document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development (“Considerations for an Ethical Discernment Regarding Some Aspects of the Present Economic-Financial System”), which was approved by Pope Francis, one section explains how the Church’s understanding of the social nature of the human… Read More Why Catholics Care About Economic Justice

In Gaudete et Exsultate, Pope Francis writes: Still, some Christians insist on taking another path, that of justification by their own efforts, the worship of the human will and their own abilities. The result is a self-centred and elitist complacency, bereft of true love. This finds expression in a variety of apparently unconnected ways of thinking… Read More Pope Francis: The Church is Not the Possession of a Select Few

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner called for the reinstatement of the death penalty yesterday. The Catholic Conference of Illinois released the following statement in response: We are distressed and alarmed by Gov. Bruce Rauner’s call for the reinstatement of the death penalty in any way, shape or form. His call to put to death individuals convicted… Read More Don’t Bring Back the Death Penalty, Illinois