As a parish pastoral associate , one of my favorite “ice-breaker” questions for small groups is: “What has been your most profound experience of Liturgy?” The answers are usually quite revealing, ranging from wedding Masses to funeral Liturgies to “mega-Masses” like those at World Youth Day. My answer, however, is always the same: my most… Read More Liturgy and Perfection
Georgetown’s Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life recently held a dialogue on Laudato Si. The panel was moderated by John Carr, director of the Initiative, and featured Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency; Anne Thompson, chief environmental affairs and Vatican correspondent for NBC News; Christiana Peppard, professor of moral theology… Read More Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the Environment: A Dialogue on its Moral and Policy Challenges
The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs… Read More Plain Persons, Popes, and the Benedict Option
Pope Francis: “We need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed, cherished, and protected.”
Pope Francis: “The attachment to riches is the beginning of all kinds of corruption, everywhere: personal corruption, corruption in business, even small commercial bribery…political corruption, corruption in education.”
Recently, I spent a week on Cape Cod with my family, and after my wife and I returned home we went to Sunday Mass. As I sat in the church waiting for Mass to begin I realized that I hadn’t really thought much about God while on vacation. I hadn’t prayed or read scripture. I… Read More Going Through the Motions
Millennial writer Meghan Clark on the Old and New Testament roots of Catholic social teaching:
