B16 challenges his bishops
The headlines and dramatic photos rush by during a papal visit, framing the sound bites that journalists uncover in stacks of Vatican speech texts. So Pope Benedict XVI visited the White House and...
View ArticleThat other speech at Notre Dame
It was hard to ignore the papal bull condemning the slave trade, which was read to American Catholic leaders gathered in Baltimore in 1839. Pope Gregory XVI proclaimed that “no one in the future dare...
View ArticleCatholic pain in health-care fight
In Catholic debates, it always helps to be able to quote the official Catechism of the Catholic Church. Consider, for example, this reference to health care in its chapter on the biblical instruction,...
View ArticleHemlock, health care and Catholic choices
The “Your Life, Your Choices” booklet didn’t cause trouble at the Department of Veterans Affairs until late in President George W. Bush’s second term. That’s when critics spotted an odd detail in this...
View ArticleA social media Reformation?
As every avid Twitter user knows, there are only 140 characters in a “tweet” and that includes the empty spaces. The bishops gathered at the ancient Council of Nicea didn’t face that kind of...
View ArticleBehind the Catholic flight from pews
Early in Father William Byron’s research into why millions of Americans are leaving Catholic pews, he heard about one woman’s tense encounter with a parish receptionist and he’s been sharing the horror...
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