On April 1, 2016, thirty Catholic institutions and ten other faith-based organizations filed an amicus curiae in support of the Clean Power Plan (CPP). The Clean Power Plan is the EPA’s proposed restriction on carbon pollution that has been stayed by the US Supreme Court in response to legal challenges by industry and Republican attorneys… Read More Catholic Support for the Clean Power Plan
A historic conference recently wrapped up at the Vatican that addressed the continued relevance of the traditional Catholic doctrine of just war theory. Just war theory outlines the moral requirements surrounding the decision to use force and the ethical limits on using force justly. The decision to use force requires a just cause, right intention,… Read More Replace Just War Theory with Nonviolence—What about Syria and Genocide?
Imagine that you’ve just graduated from college and moved to a city for your first real job. How do you live your faith and find community? Or perhaps you’ve just started a family and want to raise your children around people living the faith. How do you respond to the universal call to holiness? One… Read More Sant’Egidio, Lay Groups, Service, and Social Justice
Following the recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, much ink has been spilt over his friendship with those who rarely agreed with him on matters of religion, politics, and jurisprudence. Scalia’s sharply worded opinions and staunchly held beliefs not only put him at odds with some of his fellow justices, but to many… Read More Maintaining Friendship and Civility When Politics Gets Personal
In Madrid we live in apartment flats (pisos) and our house chapel is a converted bedroom – a rather small bedroom. For our community of fifteen fully grown Jesuits, it can be a tight fit. The space is about twice as long as it is wide, so we sit on a bench against one of… Read More The Mystery in the Mundane
The Tweetable Pope by Michael O’Loughlin, the national reporter for Crux, is an excellent new book that focuses on the content, context, and impact of Pope Francis’ use of the social media platform Twitter. O’Loughlin devotes chapters to the various themes found in Francis’ tweets, from prayer to suffering to pro-life issues to inequality. For… Read More The Tweetable Pope: An Interview with Michael O’Loughlin
When I received the 25th anniversary edition of Walk with Jesus in the mail, I was already reading another book by Fr. Henri Nouwen, Adam: God’s Beloved. Together, these books illuminate Nouwen’s vision of a more loving society in a broken world. They help to explore and explain the spiritual depth that should animate the… Read More Henri Nouwen, Encounter, and Communion: Walk with Jesus and Adam: God’s Beloved
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