Commentaries
When his wife becomes a holiday elf, a husband is left on the shelf
Deacon Paul and Helen McBlain prepare a couple for the busy holiday season, counseling them to prioritize their time and activities while keeping the real "reason for the season" in focus.
After the synod on youth, be present
Young people matter, and their presence in the church is critical -- for the good of them and the church. That's what gives synod participant Katie Prejean McGrady hope, despite some cynical commentaries.
Ever-new question for young Catholics: ‘What are you going to do?’
That's the question 29-year-old Katharine Drexel once pondered, and the same one today's youths must answer with the help of their elders walking the road of faith with them, writes Father Thomas Dailey.
Imagination: The open road where God speaks to us
Great books and movies can open our unique capacity to imagine the love, joy, peace and mercy that God wants to bring into our daily lives and vocational choices, writes Sister Rose Bernadette Mulligan, I.H.M.
Repair the world through mustard seeds of faith
The Oct. 27 Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was not an isolated act, but part of growing trend of hatred and fear, writes Mary Hood Hart. More than ever, we need to live out Christ's love to heal the wounds of sin and division.
Choose to hope, even if it doesn’t come easily
In these rugged political and social times, one can wake at night with anxiety, the opposite of hope. But Effie Caldarola finds encouragement in people whose action for justice impels us to hope.
The slow reform: No quick fixes for the evils we face
Be it abortion or the sexual abuse crisis, the unraveling of evil takes place over a very long time, writes Father Eric Banecker. The solution to sin is quiet, lengthy conversion. The problem is us. God has great victories in mind.
50 years after encyclical, a breast cancer epidemic
Since 1973 non-invasive breast cancer incidence has increased 400 percent, which Dr. Angela Lanfranchi links to directly to the birth control pill. Women have a right to know they are taking a carcinogen for a non-disease: fertility.
Seeing the beauty in disability, and in those who help
Mary Breiner was active in her Catholic parish before a disease struck her ability to walk. A new parish pastor modified the church so she could get around in her wheelchair, even as some at first opposed the changes.
They’re not vegetables, they’re people
Experts now say "permanent vegetative state" shouldn't be used to describe people unresponsive due to an injury, writes Richard Doerflinger. They can be helped, something the church has recognized for years.