A Reflection for Monday of the Second Week of Advent

"Five years have passed since I visited this place with my dear brothers Bartholomew and Ieronymos. After all this time, we see that little has changed with regard to the issue of migration."

“Here democracy was born,” Pope Francis said. “Yet we cannot avoid noting with concern how today — and not only in Europe — we are witnessing a retreat from democracy.”

Principal Bob Ryan knew his decision to require Covid-19 vaccinations or frequent testing would be controversial. What he did not anticipate was what he has called a concerted “campaign to impugn Brophy.”

The case came as an unhappy shock to Catholics all over the United States who might have hoped that years of procedural changes would have put an end to the ordination of priests like the Rev. Robert McWilliams.

The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ pro-life committee urged all people of goodwill to pray that the Supreme Court will overturn Roe v. Wade in its ruling on Mississippi’s ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The pope sees his visit here as another way to get people in Europe and elsewhere to understand that the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War II requires a global solution.

In the Supreme Court’s first major abortion case in decades the majority of justices Dec. 1 seemed willing to let that ban stay in place. But it was unclear if they would take this further and overturn Roe.

Canadians have embraced coronavirus vaccination in large numbers and are feeling a deepening exasperation with the unvaccinated.

The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Nov. 23 that an Indiana trial court “committed reversible error” when it dismissed a former teacher’s lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Indianapolis earlier this year.