“Up until the last five or 10 years, Mass was offered every day. Then it was hard to get priests [every day]; then it was hard to get priests on the weekend. There were [fewer priests] in the parishes and they were being stretched thin.”

“These options are in no way Christian: to anonymously scatter ashes in nature, air or water; to install an urn in a private home or apartment; to bury remains in a private garden; or to divide ashes into multiple ‘remembrance objects,’” the bishops wrote, also criticizing the trend to convert loved ones’ ashes into jewelry.

Two more Australian states have passed legislation criminalizing priests who fail to report the abuse of children disclosed during confession.

All violence flows in some way from a failure to understand that our infinite desire for love can be satisfied only by the one who alone is the infinite source of that desire, Matt Malone, S.J. writes.

We spend billions each year on avoiding pain through pharmaceuticals or self-medicating through alcohol and drugs. But we must not forget that pain and suffering are not the enemy.

Karen O'Donnell writes her own trauma theology as a “survivor’s gift that is offered as both a comfort and a challenge.”