Editorials

Editorial | Attack on religious freedom unacceptable

teakphillips — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:47:52 +0000

Last week the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would not rescind its mandate that nearly all health plans provide, free of charge, contraceptives, sterilization procedures and abortifacients to "all women with reproductive capacity."

Editorial | Dr. King's challenge and the danger of complacency

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:47:46 +0000

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s presence on the American scene was short and dramatic. It began in 1955 with the Montgomery bus boycott and ended with his assassination in Memphis in 1968.

But through those brief 13 years, his Gospel-grounded voice moved our nation forward in the struggle against racism, poverty, violence and injustice. Working with other people of faith, Dr. King hastened the end of legal discrimination, fostered a national commitment to social justice and launched human rights initiatives at home and abroad.

Editorial | A just and humane immigration system

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:42:32 +0000

This week Catholics across the country paid special attention to immigrants and refugees during National Migration Week.

The observance was begun more than a quarter century ago by the U.S. bishops to give Catholics an opportunity to celebrate the wide diversity of peoples in the Church and the ministries serving them.

Editorial | Trust in 2012

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:48:24 +0000

Pope Benedict XVI, in his annual World Day of Peace message, captures the ambivalence of the present moment but also the appropriate Christian response when he writes:

"I invite you to look to 2012 with this attitude of confident trust. It is true that the year now ending has been marked by a rising sense of frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labor and the economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing the light of day."

Letters to the Editor, Dec. 23, 2011

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 17:51:34 +0000

Undocumented or illegal?

The article about undocumented immigrants ("'You are not alone,' Hispanic bishops tell undocumented immigrants" page 14, Dec. 16) is so politically correct that I cringed as I read it.

Editorial | Supporting Kenrick-Glennon Seminary with zeal, pride

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 16:23:06 +0000

We can easily view the seminary as some mysterious fortress or institution into which we shall likely never set foot and which has little, if anything, to do with our lives. On the contrary, the good news is that it is our place, and it has so much to do with us all.

The seminary is God's gift to us.

It has long been said that to measure the vibrancy and the heartbeat of a diocese, we can look to its seminary. It is our future. Candidates for the priesthood are the shepherds Our Lord is raising to lead us in the future of the Church, the "shepherds after His own heart" (Jeremiah 3:15).

Editorial | Catholic Church's doctrine of human dignity is pivotal

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:33:32 +0000

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the dignity of the human person is rooted in our creation in the image and likeness of God.

The dignity of the human person is a primary doctrine of the Catholic Church, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York told an audience at the University of Notre Dame earlier this month. He added that it must prompt Catholics "to treat ourselves and others only with respect, love, honor and care."

Come to the banquet

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 22:40:31 +0000

Over the course of 2,000 years of Christianity, the mission of the true disciple of Jesus has not changed. Today, no less than when Jesus first commissioned His followers to announce and to spread the reign of God -- present, powerful and universal -- Christians are to invite all on earth to the light of faith.

Snark attack

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:00:43 +0000

Once upon a time, if a Vatican document was greeted with snarky putdowns and outright dismissal, one might safely conclude that the document had something to do with sex and that the peanut gallery hooting it down was full of Catholic progressives mocking the (so-called) lame-brained celibates who produced it.

No longer.

Take, for example, the recent bile from some opinionated souls on the Catholic right when the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace released an 18-page document in advance of the G-20 economic summit suggesting ways of international financial reform.

Which is the most important law?

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 20:21:07 +0000

In Judaism, there are more than 600 laws to be observed. The question of which is most important has always been a good one. Jesus answers it in a very novel way. He uses the proclamation that every pious Jew offers to this day -- the "Schema" -- love the Lord totally -- and He intertwines the love of neighbor with it. Jesus' love of God and neighbor are one -- they cannot be separated.

Editorial | 'Free to worship Him without fear' (Luke 1:74)

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:59:10 +0000

True, legitimate and rightful religious freedom is ever vulnerable to those who would usurp it.

The right to live in religious freedom was at the very heart of the birth of our own country. Our founders recognized that humans exist only insofar as they are in relation to God. Mindful of this foundational truth, they sought to establish a just and moral nation fully in harmony with Him.

A day to recognize our veterans

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 21:23:42 +0000

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918, "the war to end all wars" officially ended. While many nations celebrate Nov. 11 as a day to recognize veterans -- as we do here in the United States -- it is clear that the desired effect of that day has yet to be realized.

Certainly it was the hope of the leaders of the Allied Forces that the war fought between 1914 and 1918 would end in victory against the enemy and that the subsequent peace conference at Versailles would firm up a peaceful Europe, a peaceful Middle East and a peaceful world.

Editorial | The good and bad in U.S. immigration laws

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:56:15 +0000

This fall we can see clear examples of how some laws in the United States can support undocumented Hispanic children and some laws can hurt them.

Regardless of what you think of their parents' decision to leave their homeland of Mexico or Central America and move to the United States, these children are innocent. They did not make the choice to leave the country of their birth and cross the U.S. border. For many, America is the only place they have ever called home. Demanding they return to Mexico or elsewhere is completely absurd.

Hope will not leave us disappointed

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 23:10:23 +0000

"Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who ... gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance ... kept in heaven for you, ... to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time. In this you rejoice, although now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith ... may prove to be for praise, glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:3-7).

The Roman Missal: a pause for reflection on the meaning of our prayers

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:37:45 +0000

The new translation of the Mass that we'll start using this Advent is exciting.

Our excitement is not for any lack of love for the current translation, to be sure. We can be aware of some of the shortcomings of the current translation, but still love it deeply. For many of us, the current translation has shaped our entire lives as Catholics. We were born into it. It is, in some sense, our "native language."

But there are three things in particular that we can look forward to about the new translation: