Commentaries
Widen your perspective, see how amazing the world is
This year, columnist Karen Osborne wants to see what astronauts see from space: a united world where people will work together for the advancement of all. That's what God wants us to do as Catholics.
Do yourself a favor: Take up fasting
It wasn't the abundance of Christmas food or New Year's resolutions that got columnist Effie Caldarola to recommit to fasting for the good of her body and her soul.
The federal budget deal that overlooked millions
Columnist Steve Kent's modest proposal for hammering out a budget: Roll out a $122 million F-35 fighter jet and assemble a sufficient number of unemployment recipients until the sum of their annual benefits match the cost of the plane. Then let each side make its case for the money.
Might a child’s death also mean end of a marriage?
In their Marriage Matters column, Deacon Paul and Helen McBlain address the worst possibility for a parent. The strain of grieving for their child puts enormous stress on the parents' relationship, but there are ways to cope.
Christianity is a movement, not a monument
Jesuit Father William Byron writes that the rigidities of rule can cripple the movement Jesus began and replace it with monumental cathedrals, chancery offices, a promotion culture and brick-and-mortar barriers to the flow of loving people and liberating ideas that Jesus launched.
Life inside and outside the chapel at St. Charles Seminary
Brendan Monahan, now a veteran seminarian, shares the challenge and the deep joys of preparing to become a priest. The seminary experience is at its best, he observes, when he touches the lives of homeless men once a week in service.
In 2014, bringing hope to those struggling through despair
In 1969, singer Peggy Lee came out with the song, "Is That All There Is?" In it she reflects on major events in her life, and after each one sings, "Is that all there is?" leaving us with the feeling that life can sometimes feel empty.
Opting out of the Belgian solution
Recently, Belgium's Senate voted overwhelmingly to extend legal euthanasia to children of any age. The proposal, which will likely become law, limits the practice to children who are terminally ill, suffering great pain and have their parents' permission.
When Christians anywhere suffer, so do we all
Attacks on Christians throughout the world are on the rise, especially in the Middle East. U.S. Catholic bishops can insist that our country's leaders make the protection of at-risk Christians abroad a foreign policy priority for the United States.
Old age is a gift, not a calamity
Father William Byron gave a retreat this month for his elderly Jesuit brothers in which he quoted a confrere: "I view old age as a time of life which exemplifies in countless ways a great principle of our existence: the principle of growth through diminishment."