There is both bad and good news to report on church affairs this week The bad news might have been avoided if the examples in the good news were followed First we have the rebuke from Rome of America rsquo s religious women which has been chronicled here by John Coleman Francis Clooney and other

In an article in The Hill rsquo s Healthwatch Alexander Bolton raises the specter that President Obama has not only lost the support of some Catholic voters over the religious liberty issue but that the situation could worsen when the U S Catholic bishops stage their planned religious liberty ral

A provocative essay from the Austrian Jesuit Robert Deinhammer S J courtsey of Mirada Global The vital need to protect the planet rsquo s ecosystems in a comprehensive and sustainable manner is mdash unfortunately mdash often undermined by events that derive from within the environmental movem

Was Jesus a small-government free-market conservative or a welfare-state advocating liberal There seems to be a debate about what if anything the New Testament offers in terms of government policy From NPR What would Jesus do with the U S economy That s a matter of fierce debate among Chris

Last week was a very hard one for me First I reeled from reading for the umpteenth time over a twenty year period Vatican attempts to tame the good sisters in a document seemingly aimed at dessicating The Leadership Conference of Religious Women Demands were made that the American nuns org

Cambridge MA Readers know that matters internal to the Church are not my major priority in blogging except in the refined sense that as we treat others we learn something about ourselves and as we receive or reject others we make choices defining and constraining who we are So I am willing to