The Annulment Dilemma: Revisiting a complicated process
No clear guidance emerged from last fall’s Synod of Bishops on the Family for divorced and remarried Catholics who wish to receive holy Communion. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., among others, has suggested that streamlining the annulment process may be the best way to provide relief
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Past editors were no mere chroniclers of The Troubles but active participants as well.
Letters
Reply All
No Simple Solutions“The Feminist Case Against Abortion,” by Serrin M. Foster (1/19), is one of the more reasoned and thoughtful approaches to the thorny abortion issue that I have read. And it is a thorny issue. At times it seems that abortion opponents are on the opposite of a
Editorials
Among Schoolchildren
A majority of students in the nation’s public schools are now growing up in poverty.
Faith in Focus
Sometimes winter breaks us—and that’s okay.
As this winter gets underway in earnest, I say, go ahead and break me. Plunder me, take me down, so I can be made new. Maybe that is exactly what I need—not merely a rest but a reinvention.
Books
Irish-American Idol
‘Strong Boy,’ by Christopher Klein
The Forbidden Island
‘Cuban Revelations,’ by Marc Frank
Uncovering Meaning
‘Aimless Love,’ by Billy Collins, ‘Blue Horses,’ by Mary Oliver and ‘Dylan Thomas,’ edited by Hannah Ellis
Theater
Look at This: The strange, seductive worlds of ‘Cabaret’ and ‘Side Show’
A show that skewers show business strikes a slippery bargain with its audience, and it can backfire. While we may smile knowingly at its insights into backstage chicanery and the cynicism of producers, and enjoy its winking parodies of other, implicitly lesser shows, a piece of entertainment intende
The Word
In the Wilderness
Many theological reasons for Jesus rsquo baptism have been proposed explaining it as a sacramental model for the church an act of solidarity with sinful humanity or ldquo a manifestation of his self-emptying rdquo Catechism of the Catholic Church No 1224 but any answer must stress that ld
Current Comment
Current Comment
The late Rev. Richard McBrien said he didn’t “hold things back.” We are richer for it.
Faith
Sometimes winter breaks us—and that’s okay.
As this winter gets underway in earnest, I say, go ahead and break me. Plunder me, take me down, so I can be made new. Maybe that is exactly what I need—not merely a rest but a reinvention.
Of Other Things
Ashes Mark the Frontier
Ash Wednesday’s marked foreheads represent far more than personal piety.
Signs Of the Times
Cruel and Unusual? Court to Decide on Lethal Injections
When the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on the constitutionality of the executions by lethal injection in Oklahoma, its ruling will probably not be a tipping point toward the elimination of capital punishment in the United States, but some experts say it could be the beginning of the end of this pract
News Briefs
The cause for the beatification of Chiara Lubich, founder of the international Focolare Movement, was opened on Jan. 27 in a celebration in the Cathedral of Frascati, near Rome. • Shower facilities for homeless people in Rome will open in St. Peter’s Square on Feb. 15, but the service wil
A Farewell to Race?
Skin color is a evolutionary accident of geography. That does not mean racism isn’t real.
C.H.A. Urges Protection Of Health Care Reform
If the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down federal subsidies that have helped millions of people obtain health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act, it will be “an incredible cruelty,” said Carol Keehan, D.C., the president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Associatio
Challenges for Women In Church and Society
Violence against women, cultural pressures regarding women’s physical appearance, attitudes that subjugate women or that ignore male-female differences and the growing alienation of women from the church in some parts of the world are themes the Pontifical Council for Culture is set to explore
Pope Francis Sends Pallium Home
Pope Francis has decided that the public ceremony of investiture of metropolitan archbishops with the pallium will henceforth take place in the prelates’ home dioceses, not in the Vatican as has been the case under recent pontiffs.He believes that in this way the ceremony “will greatly f
Jesuit Community College
The world’s first Jesuit community college—Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago—is scheduled to open at the university’s Water Tower Campus on Aug. 17. The college, named for the late Pedro Arrupe, S.J., a former Jesuit superior general, aims to provide prospective stu
Synod on the Family
‘We Have a Lot of Work to Do’: Cardinal Marx on Pope Francis, the synod and women in the church
Cardinal Reinhard Marx, archbishop of the Diocese of Munich and Freising, is head of the German bishops’ conference, a member of the Council of Cardinals that advises Pope Francis on church governance, coordinator of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy and author of Das Kapital: A Plea
Vatican Dispatch
Francis’ Spiritual Reform
Mandated by the cardinals in the pre-conclave meetings to reform the Roman Curia, Pope Francis is taking his task very seriously and moving in a more radical direction than anyone had expected. His aim is not simply structural reform of the Vatican offices, though that is part of it; his primary goa
Washington Front
A Sermon on the Hill
Are our leaders ready for Pope Francis’ challenge to business as usual?
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