Focus

  • How can we implement Amoris Laetitia?

    May 02, 2016

    In a recent interview, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris explains to Frederic Mounier how can we implement Amoris Laetitia.

  • Comforting the sorrowful

    Apr 22, 2016

    We hear in Isaiah 40:1: “‘Comfort, give to my people,’ says your God.”

  • Comforting the afflicted in practical ways

    Apr 22, 2016

    Bad news is hard to hear, like the very bad news that one’s long-held job is about to be lost to the forces of downsizing or outsourcing.

  • Food for Thought

    Apr 22, 2016

    Father Jim Gardiner, a Franciscan Friar of the Atonement, says that when comforting the sorrowful, we should note that those we are trying to comfort

  • Chicago archbishop says Pope makes clear doctrines are to serve people

    Apr 15, 2016

    Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich (pic right) welcomed Pope Francis’ reflection on marriage and family life, saying that while not changing any church doctrine, the apostolic exhortation “makes clear that doctrines are at the service of the pastoral mission.”

  • Admonish the sinner, but show love, too

    Apr 15, 2016

    When one thinks about the spiritual work of mercy "admonish the sinner," the picture of John the Baptist in the desert -- the fiery prophet we see in Matthew 3:1-10 calling for people to repent their evil ways and to produce good fruit as a sign of repentance -- comes to mind.

  • When admonishment is merciful and compassionate

    Apr 15, 2016

    The inmates Pope Francis visited in a Mexican prison Feb 17 were encouraged by him to consider “the possibility of writing a new story” in their lives and to believe “that things can change.”

  • Food for Thought

    Apr 15, 2016

    Many of us are reluctant to point out a person's transgressions, let alone sins, making the spiritual work of mercy, the one that tells us to admonish the sinner, difficult to carry out.

  • Pope Francis challenges the Church

    Apr 15, 2016

    Pope Francis is calling for something more radical than changing from rigid, conservative rules to lax, liberal ones. As he writes in The Joy of Love, at Paragraph 300, “neither the Synod nor this Exhortation could be expected to provide a new set of general rules, canonical in nature and applicable to all cases.

  • Pope Francis: Children are always gifts, even in tough circumstances

    Apr 15, 2016

    Pope Francis’ latest writings on the family include a strong affirmation of the need to welcome children even in difficult circumstances.