The Holy Father's Plea
On May 30, 2011, Pope Benedict announced the convening of a special Synod of Bishops in Rome, beginning Oct. 7, 2012. Bishops from all over the world, including four from the United States, were invited to participate in this gathering.
A special Synod indicates there are issues and concerns of particular urgency on the Holy Father’s mind, issues and concerns that require expansive consultation and expertise, and intensive prayer.
We know from the Holy Father’s...
We spent a lot of time at the Synod on the New Evangelization in Rome talking about salvation.
On the one hand, I guess this should not shock us, since Jesus came as our Savior, offering us the “good news” of eternal salvation.
However, on the other hand, this is a surprise, because, as some Synod participants have chillingly observed, the Church rarely, if ever, speaks of salvation these days, since most of us today presume it, or don’t think we even need it!
Think about that…why do...
I write to you again this week from Rome, where the Synod of Bishops for the new evangelization has become a “synod of saints.”
Pope Benedict XVI opened the Synod almost three weeks ago by adding St. Hildegard of Bingen and St. John of Avila to the elite list of Church “doctors” – saints are special teachers of holiness and of theology and spirituality.
This past Sunday, which was World Mission Sunday, I was blessed to concelebrate a Mass in which the Pope proclaimed seven new...
A friend of mine quipped recently that the real religion of Americans has nothing to do with churches or synagogues. Our “real” religion is politics and the juggling for power it involves. He was being humorous. But as I write these words in late October, and we head into the final days of another, uniquely important, presidential election, his words don’t seem quite so funny.
In the heat of ugly political conflicts, we can easily lose sight of our real vocation as Christians: holiness....
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
"God doesn't hate Democrats!" These were the words that greeted me from an irate fan at a recent SHG football game.
"That's right," I agreed.
The person seemed surprised. "You agree?"
"Yes," I replied. "Why would you think otherwise?"
"Well, because of what you said recently."
So I asked, "Did you read my whole column or watch the entire video recording of it?"
"No," was the honest reply. "I just saw a snip of it."
There's the problem. While I have received...
In leading us into the Year of Faith, which began October 11, Pope Benedict calls on each of us as believers to “rediscover (God’s) joy,” to “radiate (God’s) word,” and to make our Christian witness “frank and contagious.”
Now those are wonderful words, but how do we actually live them? We need to begin by realizing that we’re not being asked to do the impossible – only the uncomfortable and inconvenient.
Benedict is asking us to examine our hearts and our habits of life...
Georgie Anne Geyer is an American journalist and columnist. She has interviewed such figures as Saddam Hussein, Yasser Arafat and Muammar al-Gaddafi. Her columns have been published in over 120 newspapers around the world. A few years ago, she expressed her deep conviction that a nation could not exist without morality or without faith in God. Without faith in God, everything comes down to “me” and there is no longer a solid basis for moral principles.
In 1980, Geyer said, “Moral...
Election season rhetoric has taken a turn for the worse.
Politicians’ pledges to engage in civil dialogue have devolved into acrimony and name calling.
Television and radio stations are reaping the benefits of negative infomercials devoid of content and substantive information.
We deserve better.
The U.S. bishops, in an effort to help Catholics make good political choices and navigate the turbulent waters of election 2012, have re-proposed a practical and accessible document titled...
Before I leave for Rome tomorrow, and the all-month meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization, I wanted to share some thoughts with you on this beautiful feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
St. Francis was a completely unexpected man: suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, came a unique figure, perhaps the most Christ-like of saints in the two millennia of Christian history, beloved ever since by peoples across the globe of all creeds or none at all. That a St. Francis could happen at...
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:
Much attention was given at the Democratic National Convention held recently in Charlotte, N.C., to the fact that all references to God had been purged from the draft version of the party platform. After outcries of protest from outside as well as within the Democratic Party, the sentence with the same reference to God used in 2008 was restored to read, "We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values and interests of working people, and...
