Pope Praises American Nuns 
D.C. Catholic Coalition Files Health Care Reform Lawsuit 
Cleveland Catholics Are 'Anxious And Edgy' As Parish... 
Vatican Says Unity With Traditionalists Needs 'Further... 
Catholic Bishops Goes On Offensive Against Girl Scouts
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The Blog
At the end of this month, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious will meet to formulate a response to a Vatican trap whose cunning is best appreciated within the long tradition of religious authorities who craft impossible dilemmas for those they perceive as threats.
While Pope John Paul II's relationship with American nuns appeared to rein in the more exuberant experiments and freedoms they embraced after Vatican II, Pope Benedict XVI's recent decree is drop-dead shocking.
So rogue are most Roman Catholics when it comes to papal teaching, that Catholic dissidence often seems the norm.
Real evil abounds in our world each day, and most of us are doing our level best to relieve the pain of evil's fallout. Faith leaders should support the good people who work hard to make a positive difference for children in this very imperfect world.
Yes, we all need guidance as to what constitutes a moral approach to contentious issues. But we aren't helped by resolutions that force people to be either insiders or outsiders, driven even further apart in a society that's already politically polarized.
Pastors and priests seeking to fill their pews with young churchgoers have a tough task ahead. Many younger Millennials have already moved away from the religion in which they were raised, mostly joining the growing ranks of the religiously unaffiliated.
Does the Pope really want to force American Catholics to choose between standing with our nuns or with a male hierarchy interrogating them for nebulous infractions, with a stated agenda of keeping their findings secret?
If we want to practice "reconciliation for the sake of mission," we first have to acknowledge the people with whom we need to be reconciled.
The bishops would of course never tell their parishioners to vote Republican, but they left little to the imagination. Priests would preach at mass about the necessity of voting only for pro-life candidates.
Later this month, I will have the privilege of traveling with several other brother bishops from the United States to join our Holy Father on his visit to Cuba.
Recently I published an open letter to Cardinal Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, calling his attention to the epidemic numbers of LGBT youth being rejected by their parents and forced into homelessness. Last week I received the following reply from Cardinal Dolan.
Long before Chinatown, Little Italy, and SoHo became some of New York City's most popular neighborhoods, at the heart of them all sat St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.
No matter how much some individuals would like to put the sexual abuse scandal behind them, they can no longer appeal to an obedient laity to ignore or downplay the crimes, according to new research.
The Amish are exempt from the entire health care reform law. Yet, when the Catholic Church asks for a religious exemption from just one regulation issued under the law, the Administration balks.
Let's not allow the political noise of an election year to distract us from basic facts or reject pragmatic solutions that will help the American people.
Kennedy stated that, "... I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president, who happens also to be a Catholic."
