The question that occurs is why the accidents occurred in the first place. Whether the response was brilliant or botched, it would surely be preferable not to have these incidents at all.
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The anniversary week of Pope Francis has prompted many commentators to list the highlights of the pontificate. The pope's foreign policy - especially in Syria - should not be added to these lists. Vatican diplomacy has resulted in Assad being more secure in Damascus, with his staunch ally Putin playing a greater role in the Middle East.
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Shopify, for those who don’t know – and I would have been among them until recently – is a site that lets merchants sell their wares online. Not everybody is happy about the website Breitbart being one of those vendors.
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Pope Francis remains a fascinating story. He is non-judgmental when addressing the world on sexual matters, and extremely harsh in his judgments on other matters, from economics to immigration to climate change.
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The fiftieth anniversary of the death of General Georges Philias Vanier, Canada’s 19th Governor General, fell earlier this week. Having lived the great Canadian life, he died in Canada’s centennial year. He has lessons to teach us in this year of Canada 150.
Read MoreIt’s possible to consider that after the great Christian witness (martyria) of our time, St. John Paul II, and the profound teacher of the right worship of God (leitourgia), Benedict XVI, we now have a pope whose heart is manifestly open to the suffering through the practical ministry of charity (diakonia).
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Why do Catholics — and to be sure, other Christians, especially of the Eastern traditions, both Catholic and Orthodox — readily consider Lent to be the most spiritually fruitful time of the year?
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Horsesh–. That’s what came to mind when reading reports of the recent meeting of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences (Pass), convened to discuss “biological extinction” last week. It’s not that the learned scholars were talking horse dung, but that they weren’t.
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That Sunday morning 50 years ago, Vanier was too weak to attend Mass in the chapel and so he received Holy Communion in his bedroom. Madame Vanier went to Mass down the hall, and upon her return her husband died. Thus died the greatest Canadian in history.
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The resignation of the lone remaining survivor of clerical abuse from Pope Francis's anti-abuse commission raises questions about the pontiff's improvisational management style. If he really can't get what he wants from the Vatican bureaucracy, is it maybe time to try a different way of getting it?
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Five hundred years later, in Cardus’ little patch of the vineyard, Catholics and Reformed work together daily, not in a spirit of mere toleration, but of genuine flourishing. So how will we think about the Reformation this year, as we head toward Reformation Day on October 31st, five centuries after Luther published, as it were, his 95 Theses?
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In practice though, the carbon tax will change carbon consumption decisions only if set at the right level. If the cost of reducing carbon emissions is, say, $45/tonne for a particular producer, then Alberta’s carbon tax will have no effect on its energy consumption.
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I have a special affection for the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s. I was ordained a deacon there in 2001, and always stop to offer a prayer of thanksgiving whenever I am in Rome. So it was a blessing to be able to offer the Holy Mass in St. Peter’s this past Feb. 22.
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The news that Michael Novak had died Feb. 17 at age 83 was properly an occasion for celebrating his massively influential scholarship and writing. He lived a large life, and his even larger heart meant that a great many people had a place in it.
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Readers, like us writers, are perhaps getting weary from the dizzying twists and turns on divorce, remarriage and the sacraments. Alas, the latest whirl on the Amoris Laetitia carousel, provided by Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, cannot be ignored.
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What might a Palestinian state look like? Would it look like Jordan or Egypt? Or like Syria, Iraq, Libya or Yemen? Or Lebanon? Or like Gaza?
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Cardinal Zen’s admiration for St. John Fisher is easy to understand. The Chinese communist regime will grant Catholics the ability to practice the faith freely only on the condition that they belong to a government bureau of religion, and do not acknowledge the full authority of the Holy Father.
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Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas believes the other is sincere in wanting a two-state solution. Neither trusts the other to keep promises made. And on the Israeli side, there is no confidence that Abbas will be succeeded by a stable partner for peace.
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