Opinion
Abortion and high-risk health insurance
By A. B. Hill One of the most urgent concerns of the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is providing health care coverage for adults who have a pre-existing condition, which may have made it difficult or impossible for them to obtain insurance. Pennsylvania joined New Mexico in the news this week when […]
Mass attendance: seeing the bright side
The pessimist sees a glass half empty; the optimist, a glass half full. The person of faith works and prays to fill the glass. The analogy applies as one looks at the numbers of people occupying pews for Sunday Masses with despair. The data on Mass attendance in archdiocesan parishes analyzed by Lou Baldwin in […]
The written Word of God: Scrolls to e-books
By Msgr. Michael K. MageeThe Challenge of Jesus Today It seems that electronic publishing has made tremendous strides in the past year or so, profoundly affecting the speed and ease with which words can be copied and communicated over a wide area and to vast numbers of people. On one site recently offering electronic books, […]
Hatred has no part in Catholic faith
By Father Leonard Peterson I relished the baseball analogy that came with a parishioner’s compliment on a homily I recently preached: “Father, you hit one out of the park.” Such praise doesn’t come every Sunday, rest assured. But I want to pay the same sport language tribute to Archbishop Jose Gomez, the recently installed coadjutor […]
Energy at what price?
Reliable, relatively inexpensive electricity allows almost everyone in Southeastern Pennsylvania to retreat from summertime heat to the comfort of air conditioned cars, homes and workplaces. This availability is driven by cheap energy. But recent events force a reexamination of the true price of the energy we use. The first of the most recent examples is […]
School is out, food is in
By this week’s end, students throughout the Philadelphia region will be finished classes for another school year. As their term ends and summer fun begins, one thing remains constant: the need for all children to have regular, healthy meals. That’s no guarantee in tough economic times. Families struggling to make ends meet come to rely […]
A Father’s Day gift from my dad
By Louis Cabrelli There is seldom a day that goes by that I don’t think about my father. I remember the loss that I felt when he died almost 37 years ago. It was as though I was performing on a high wire for the first time in my life, without a net. Since then […]
Good and faithful men of the Church
When Cardinal Justin Rigali makes a pastoral visit to a parish in the Archdiocese, he celebrates Mass and afterward customarily greets everyone who wishes to say hello. During the visit an observer might notice a young priest nearby and think, “Who is that priest assisting the Cardinal?” It is normally the same priest who assists […]
Cutting EITC does not add up
By A. B. Hill Arithmetic can be a challenging subject as any student cramming for finals will tell you. State lawmakers in Harrisburg will agree. Right now, they must solve a particularly tough math problem – balance the Commonwealth budget before June 30. Gov. Ed Rendell and our state legislators must make some difficult decisions. […]
Who will do something?
The catastrophe playing out now in the Gulf of Mexico has defied every attempt to stop the millions of gallons of oil gushing from a reservoir beneath 20,000 feet of rock and another 5,000 feet of water. Non-engineer observers naturally plead, “Somebody do something!” We don’t know what to do or who will do it.{{more}} […]