As we reported on this blog the Vatican has announced that has scheduled an official visitation of women s religious orders next year Typically visitations and no the term has nothing to do with Mary and Elizabeth are undertaken to correct some kind of problematic situation in a dioces

Happy Ash Wednesday As I mentioned in an Of Many Things column a few years ago an in an NPR piece my Lenten sacrifices come to me from a Jewish friend named Rob with whom I roomed in college and his family At the time my mostly Jewish friends meaning that most of my friends were Jewish n

In case you missed The Colbert Report last night here s a conversation about vocation the vow of poverty and an unusual new image of God James Martin S J

The paradoxes of Ash Wednesday

Vinita Hampton Wright is one of my favorite spiritual writers nbsp And full disclosure she was also the copyeditor--and a fantastic one--for my book My Life with the Saints nbsp A few weeks ago I received a copy of her new book Days of Deepening Friendship For the Woman Who Wants Authen

This week L Osservatore Romano highlighted a study nbsp just in time for Lent nbsp on the sinful tendencies of the sexes nbsp The report according to the BBC nbsp was based on a study of confessions carried out by nbsp Roberto Busa S J a 95-year-old Jesuit scholar nbsp The Pope s pe

Bishop Fellay the superior of the Society of St Pius nbsp X said that nbsp it would be difficult to reach doctrinal consensus with the pope reports nbsp AP nbsp nbsp nbsp One gets the impression that Fellay feels that nbsp church will soon be brought to greater doctrinal clarity and Benedict

Adolfo Nicolas the superior general of the Society of Jesus recently visited the Jesuits California Province on the occasion of its 100th anniversary nbsp He spoke to a wide variety of groups--9 days 11 cities and 30 different sites--and had an extensive press conference for representative

The pope s choice for auxiliary bishop of Linz Austria has withdrawn his name from consideration after a firestorm erupted after nbsp the priest s nbsp comments about Hurricane Katrina which he said was God s punishment on the people of New Orleans for their sins and homosexuality which

At least he rsquo s not saying that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene that Opus Dei murders people and that the Va tican has misled believers about Christ for 2 000 years nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp Here rsquo s a trailer and behind-the-scenes look at the new Ron How