With all that’s been written about understanding Pope Francis, fellow Patheos blogger and newly ordained Fr. Sam Sawyer, SJ, may have one of the best responses I’ve seen so far. He starts with St. Ignatius, whose feast day we celebrate today: “There are very few people who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves entirely into his hands, and let themselves be formed by his grace.” Fr. Sawyer goes on to lay out a pretty convincing... Read more
Ideologues of all kinds have been trying to figure out Pope Francis for over a year now. Many, if not most, are still trying to fit him into their own boxes. But try as they might, he can’t be stuffed into a box. Archbishop Chaput gave a recent talk for the Napa Institute in which he explains quite clearly how Pope Francis is simply Catholic. He’s not a liberal. He’s not a conservative. And if you consider him only through... Read more
Heartbeat International, a global network of pregnancy centers, has been able to confirm that it received its 2 millionth caller to its 24/7 help center, OptionLine. For eleven years, Heartbeat has worked round the clock, literally. OptionLine is always open; there is always someone there to answer a call, text, email, or IM. Always. Full disclosure – I’m on the board of Heartbeat. I’m honored to have been asked to serve. You see, I’m fully committed to women’s rights and... Read more
Yesterday, fellow blogger Greg Popcak posted a provocative piece, “There’s No Such Thing As NFP.” As a philosopher, I might quibble with some of his terminology. But I think he’s spot on: NFP is simply information that allows couples to communicate and pray about how marital intimacy can help them grow in holiness and receptivity to God’s will. And: Incidentally, I don’t mean to suggest that couples who don’t use NFP have no process in place for communicating and praying about how... Read more
Earlier this week, on Monday, I was flipping through the channels and caught the end of an interview between Sean Hannity and Fr. Jonathan Morris. The interview covered issues of pedophilia and married priests related to a recent account of a conversation with Pope Francis. (Scalfari, the editor who wrote up the interview has stated publicly that he takes no notes, records nothing, and just goes from memory. In other words, when he sits down with the Pope, he plays... Read more
We talk about peace, but it’s generally an abstract concept describing relations between nations. Nevertheless, at every Mass we hear the words of Jesus, “My peace I give to you.” That’s huge. I’ve often thought that we don’t allow ourselves to experience that reality, especially in our closest relationships. Maybe it’s because we don’t know how. Now, few months ago, I started following the work of Kevin A. Thompson, a Christian pastor who writes a lot on marriage and family... Read more
One of the standard hurdles thrown at Catholics is the question of why doesn’t the Catholic Church allow married priests, particularly when there’s a vocation crisis? [Aside – In interviews, I generally try to point out that we need to define what is meant by a “vocations crisis” because vocations to the clerical and religious lives are in fact thriving in some areas..] Fr. Dwight Longenecker, fellow blogger at here Patheos has a great column in ZENIT addressing precisely this... Read more
The more I think about it, the more the Supreme Court’s decision on the Hobby Lobby case bothers me. I don’t disagree with the decision, but I don’t like what it reveals about our culture. Case in point, Deroy Murdock listed all the contraceptives that were covered by Hobby Lobby before the decision and that would be covered after the decision. Here you go – Male condoms Female condoms Diaphragms with spermicide Sponges with spermicide Cervical caps with spermicide Spermicide... Read more
This is a picture of yesterday’s San Jose Mercury News, front page, above the fold. The headline: CONTRACEPTIVE BENEFIT TAKES HIT Underneath that it reads: COMPANIES THAT OBJECT CAN NOW AVOID COVERAGE. Well, yes, maybe; but mostly no. Fact #1: The only companies that can avoid coverage are those which family run, have strongly held religious beliefs, and are closely run by the family. Fact #2: Most companies will not even consider cutting contraceptive coverage because offering contraception reduces the... Read more
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the situation of Christians in Iraq. It was not good, judging from the email sent by a Dominican who was there. And things look worse now: Last Sunday, for the first time in 1600 years, no mass was celebrated in Mosul. The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) seized Iraq’s second largest city on June 10, causing most Christians in the region to flee in terror, in new kinship with the... Read more
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