Commentaries
Thank you for not sharing
For people who post every thought and image of their lives on the Internet, Karen Osborne has a message of only 101 characters: It is OK to keep your photos and ideas to yourself. Not everything needs to be shared with the world.
Abbey Fest started with a vision for building beauty ever new
Abbey Faith and Music Festival’s director, Mark Griswold, shares how the event was born and the collective efforts it took behind the scenes to make the event a success.
Get to know Catholic scouting, the largest youth ministry
The nation's oldest youth movement for character development and values-based leadership training for Catholic boys and girls has many activities in the Philadelphia Archdiocese, writes the archdiocesan scout chaplain, Father David Friel.
Get the go-ahead from Congress before another war
The lesson of Vietnam is that presidents should not begin wars unilaterally and then dare Congress to pull the plug on them afterward, writes John Garvey. President Obama should seek permission from Congress for this war in Iraq and Syria. And Congress should give it to him.
A changed church, and an exciting one
Today's Catholic Church in America is different in at least four ways from when Father Eugene Hemrick was ordained a priest decades ago. The changes reflect difficulties, but also newness and hope, he writes.
Making violence ho hum: The NFL as Exhibit A
Pro football players are highly paid and coached to forego restraint and inflict bodily violence every week, writes columnist Steve Kent. Let's not be hypocritical and appear shocked when some of these men cross the line to domestic abuse or worse.
How to respond to barbarism
Columnist Effie Caldarola thought the beheading of people was consigned to the distant past. But with today's ISIS extremists, she has to think and pray about the ultimate victory of truth.
Save the Internet for the common good
The FCC needs a better vision of what the Internet is, writes Bishop John Wester on the "net neutrality" controversy. Favoring some content because of a greater ability to pay could result in an even greater divide between the powerful and the rest of a community, which the Catholic Church serves.
Help youth to know, and do, the faith
Young people's view of God as the Divine Butler points to the deficiency of our collective work in faith formation, writes Carolyn Woo. A solution may lie in works of service.
The good life and how to get there
Faith is a map guiding you into the future, Father William Byron advises young people. The Scriptures, God's inspired word, can be an enormous help in mapping out a path toward the good life.