In November, Pope Francis issued a stirring call in Evangelii Gaudium for the Church to rediscover her “missionary impulse.” “If the whole Church takes up this missionary impulse,” he wrote, “she has to go forth to everyone without exception. But to whom should she go first? When we read the Gospel we find a clear… Read More Prioritizing the Poor in Global Health
Last night, as millions were watching the Superbowl, U2 launched their new single “Invisible.” Everything about this song is what fans like myself have come to expect from U2 – both the song and its release pushing us to see those whom we otherwise might not notice (and raising some money for the Global Fund to… Read More There is No Them, Only Us
One of the central paradigms of Catholic thought is best communicated in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s 1943 classic The Little Prince. A children’s book, the whole story can be summed up in the words of the fox to the little prince: “One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”… Read More Pragmatic Solutions Not Ideology Will End the Violence of Poverty
Last week, Pope Francis released his message for the 48th World Communications Day, “Communication at the Service of an Authentic Culture of Encounter.” Since 1967, most of these messages (and every one since 1996) have been dated for release on January 24th, the feast day of Saint Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists. They… Read More Who is My Digital Neighbor?
Have you ever seen an aspiring theologian fist pump like Tiger Woods? You have if you were anywhere near me last Friday when the Vatican confirmed that Pope Francis has begun writing an encyclical addressing environmental challenges and “the ecology of man.” Rumors of a possible environmental encyclical have been swirling since November, when Pope… Read More Expectations and Hopes for Pope Francis’ Ecological Encyclical
The dire situation in the Central African Republic (CAR), a landlocked country the size of Texas with a population of over 4 million, has sparked fears of a possible genocide and international efforts underway have so far failed to effectively prevent a serious humanitarian crisis. There have been disheartening reports of mass killings, beheadings of… Read More Can Disaster be Averted in the Central African Republic?
“This is the hour of the poor, of the millions of poor throughout the earth. This is the hour of the mystery of the Mother Church of the Poor, this is the hour of the mystery of Christ above all in the poor.” –Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, December 6, 1962. “How I would love a church… Read More How to Create a Church of the Poor
Millennial 