Sometime ago as I stood at the back of a parish church following Mass greeting members of the parish a family approached and its youngest member a boy of about 5 asked me ldquo Why do you call us brothers and sisters You rsquo re not my brother rdquo I said to him ldquo There is a sense in

Speaking at a candlelight prayer vigil in St Peter rsquo s Square on the eve of the opening of the synod of bishops on the family Pope Francis made clear that he wants lsquo the synod fathers rsquo to listen attentively to God and to the cry of the people and to keep their sights fixed firmly on

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship organizations in the massive 23 campus 450 000 student California State University system have been brought under new rules by which many of them may be ldquo de-recognized rdquo as official student groups The change comes as a result of the C S U rsquo s 2011

ldquo A broad freedom of expression rdquo in ldquo a climate of respect for every position mutual charity and an authentic constructive sense rdquo will be the hallmarks of the extraordinary synod of bishops on the family that opens on October 5 nbsp Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri the Secretary

America asked two prominent members of Congress both Catholics with famous names to respond to nbsp Pope Francis rsquo repeated calls to empower the poor Paul Ryan nbsp the Republican chairman of the House Budget Committee is an eight-term member of Congress from Wisconsin rsquo s 1st Congressi

Poet James Merrill once described his fellow writer Elizabeth Bishop as ldquo a genius masquerading as an ordinary woman rdquo I thought of that line after spending two days this past summer working on a profile for PBS-TV rsquo s nbsp Religion amp Ethics NewsWeekly nbsp on the Quaker folk sing