Why Christians Must Be Strangers
The 2nd century Letter to Diognetus has this beautiful and challenging description of Christians: “The difference between Christians and the rest of men and women is neither in country, not in language, nor in customs. They dwell in their own fatherlands, but as temporary inhabitants. They take part in all things as citizens, while enduring […]
The Goal of “Ordinary Time”
One of the beauties of Catholicism is the centrality of seasons in the religious and spiritual imagination in the Catholic consciousness. We begin the Liturgical Year with the First Sunday of Advent, then celebrate Christmas, move over to Lent and get to the apex at Easter. Sandwiched in between these four seasons is what the […]
The Church and the Clown
Joseph Ratzinger once recounted an incident he had as a young priest in the company of the famous Joseph Frings, Cardinal Archbishop of Cologne. The context was shortly before the German bishops were to leave for the Second Vatican Council. The German episcopacy had decided to meet to harness their thoughts together in the face […]
The Church in Africa and the 2015 Synod on the Family
There are an estimated 1.2 billion Roman Catholics in the world, according to Vatican figures. More than 40% of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America – but Africa has seen the biggest growth in Catholic congregations in recent years. At the start of the 20th century, Africa had about 3 million Catholics. Today, a […]
Domine, Non Sum Dignus!
A central leitmotif of the October 2014 Extraordinary Synod on the Family, following the presentation by Cardinal Kasper in the Consistory of February 2014, almost narrowed down to the question of the reception of Holy Communion by the divorce and civilly remarried. Kasper had advocated, based on a reading of Basil and the Fathers; the […]
Baptism Says It All
From September 19 – 22, 1996, St. John Paul II made his sixth pastoral visit to France, a nation that was certainly dear to the heart of this son of Poland. Besides Poland that John Paul visited nine times, France seconds the list with eight pastoral visits from John Paul II. The occasion of this […]