Chaput: school showed “character and common sense” in firing lesbian

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 9:29 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

Yesterday, he released a statement responding to the Catholic school’s firing of a lesbian religion teacher. From Philly.com: Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput said Monday that the Mercy Sisters who run Waldron Mercy Academy showed “character and common sense” in firing a lesbian teacher who has been married since 2007. In his first direct comment since the firing became public last week – after parents of two students found out about the marriage and complained – Chaput said in a... Read more

The Future Clergy: Smelling like sheep?

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 12:46 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

When Patheos first explored questions about the future of religion five years ago, I speculated that a Catholic priesthood made up of more married men was likely. Well, five years later, married men are continuing to be ordained—through the Pastoral Provision created by St. John Paul II and via the Anglican Ordinariate set up by Benedict XVI—but a bigger impact on the future of the church may lie, not in the priesthood, but in the church’s bishops. What a difference a pope makes.... Read more

One man’s stunning fall, from Harvard to homeless

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 12:44 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

A heartbreaking portrait of one man’s rise and fall, from Terence McCoy in The Washington Post: In a city with thousands of homeless people, [Alfred] Postell may be the District’s most academically distinguished. Diplomas, awards and certificates clutter a closet at his mother’s apartment, buried artifacts of a lost life. He holds three degrees: one in accounting, one in economics, and one in law. On a summer evening, he sits inside a McDonald’s on 17th Street NW, a white towel... Read more

Chaput: school showed “character and common sense” in firing lesbian

Last updated on: July 14, 2015 at 12:43 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

Splitsville: a Chicago parish helps couples cope with divorce

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 1:09 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

This sounds like a parish ministry whose time has come: Mary Margaret O’Connor had a hard time sitting in church after her divorce. She tried one parish after another, but was distracted by the families filling the pews around her. “It was just another painful reminder of what I had lost,” said O’Connor. Friends told the Mount Prospect resident to try a different denomination, one that might be more open to talking about divorce and religion, but O’Connor wanted to... Read more

A new bishop who’s “not afraid to get down from the pulpit and get along with the sheep”

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 12:38 pm By Deacon Greg Kandra

From The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Growing up Catholic near Harrisburg, Edward Malesic found church “quite boring and uninspiring.” No one thought he would become a priest, and he wasn’t sure he would remain a Catholic. But thanks to some surprising influences — a Mormon science teacher, some evangelical Protestant girlfriends, a Gideon’s Bible — he started on a journey to the priesthood and today’s ceremony of ordination at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral as bishop of the Diocese of Greensburg. Father Malesic will... Read more

What was the most important part of the pope’s trip?

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 9:42 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

The papal spokesman had a ready answer: Asked by a journalist, here in Asuncion, during the final press briefing, what he thinks is the main common denominator of Pope Francis’ three-nation Latin American tour, Papal spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi didn’t have to think too hard. No, he didn’t say “the appeal for justice and equality,” “closeness to the poor and the needy” or “the call to leaders to combat corruption”; he didn’t even talk about the strong Marian dimension of... Read more

A new bishop who’s “not afraid to get down from the pulpit and get along with the sheep”

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 7:46 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

Splitsville: a Chicago parish helps couples cope with divorce

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 12:40 am By Deacon Greg Kandra

What was the most important part of the pope’s trip?

Last updated on: July 13, 2015 at 12:37 am By Deacon Greg Kandra