Focus

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  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.

  
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  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.

  
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  When dealing with doubt, we can help one another

  Apr 08, 2016

  We are called, as Catholic disciples, to counsel the doubtful, and the doubt-filled, just as they are called to counsel us.

  
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  Walking the path of doubt together

  Apr 08, 2016

  On the spiritual journey of life, we are sometimes doubtful, often discouraged, occasionally skeptical and always on the way.

  

• Food for Thought

  Apr 08, 2016

  In a May 2015 blog post for the Archdiocese of Washington, Msgr. Charles Pope writes that counseling the doubtful, as a spiritual work of mercy, is not concerned with "mere expedience," but it's about helping someone with "what is moral, upright and holy."

  
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  Examining conscience in the Bible

  Apr 08, 2016

  At the gathering of the Synod of Bishops in October 2015, church leaders discussed a wide range of challenges facing modern families, including — though not limited to — sensitive questions around Communion for divorced and remarried Catholics, contraception and same-sex marriage.

  
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  Jesus the teacher

  Apr 01, 2016

  The spiritual work of mercy "to instruct the ignorant" is solidly grounded in the New Testament.

  
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  Awakening others' hidden gifts: A work of mercy

  Apr 01, 2016

  Millions of loyal viewers discovered during the recently concluded final season of "Downton Abbey," the popular British TV drama set in the early 20th century, that Andy Parker, a footman in this grand household of nobility, could not read.

  
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  Food for Thought

  Apr 01, 2016

  In a 2010 article about instructing the ignorant, Mark Shea wrote about the complexity that exercising this spiritual work of mercy can bring.

  
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  Food for Thought

  Mar 23, 2016

  The only way to enter into the Easter mystery, Pope Francis said, is with humility, “to come down from the pedestal of our ‘I’ that is so proud, of our presumption.