Category: Columns

On
Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB

Adaptation and renewal of Religious Life

Reflections on Religious Life column by Abbot Marcel Rooney

Editor’s note: During this Year of Consecrated Life, this is the first in a series based on the Second Vatican Council’s document, Perfectae Caritatis (Decree on the Adaptation and Renewal of Religious Life) written by Abbot Marcel Rooney, OSB, former abbot primate of the Benedictine order who now resides in Madison.

Pope Francis has declared this year as one to be dedicated to the Life of Religious Consecration.

This is not a one-sided emphasis, since this is also the year of the Synod of Bishops which will be dedicated to the discussion of married life. It is important to see both ways of life as at the heart of the whole Church’s life and calling to witness Jesus.

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Fr. Tad Pacholczyk

Esteeming our elders

Occasionally we hear disturbing stories in the media about young people who perpetrate abuse against the elderly.

In a widely reported 2009 story, for example, caretakers at the Quadrangle Assisted Living facility outside Philadelphia were charged in connection with the abuse of an elderly patient named Lois McCallister. Three employees, aged 19, 21, and 22 were caught on a surveillance camera as they taunted, mocked, and assaulted the partially naked 78-year-old woman.

She had begun complaining to visiting family members several months prior that someone was hurting her and hitting her. There were also initial signs of bruising on her hand and wrist.

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On
Fr. Robert Barron

Problems with ‘hook-up’ culture

From the 1950s through the late 1970s, Karol Wojtyla (St. John Paul II) was a professor of moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland, specializing in sexual ethics and what we call today “marriage and family life.”

He produced two important books touching on these matters, The Acting Person, a rigorous philosophical exploration of Christian anthropology, and Love and Responsibility, a much more accessible analysis of love, sex, and marriage.

These texts provided the foundation for the richly textured teaching of St. John Paul II that now goes by the name “theology of the body.”

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On
Michael Lancaster

Catholic schools serve society

This year we again celebrate our Catholic schools as “Communities of faith, knowledge, and service.”

It is always edifying to look at our Catholic schools with satisfaction and pride as we recognize the wonderful communities of faith, knowledge, and service created by each school.

During Catholic Schools Week, we acknowledge these communities, extoll their virtues, and invite others to join us as members of these communities that educate children in faith and knowledge that they might serve others and by so doing, serve God.

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On
John Heubscher

Issues in 2015 call us to witness to Catholic principles

Eye on the Capitol by John Huebscher

Advocating for the Catholic Conference requires us to articulate the principles of Catholic social teaching in what a lawyer-friend of mine likes to call the “jury English” of everyday conversation.

Relating the Principle of Solidarity to current policy issues is one example of this.

All in this together

The Principle of Solidarity flows from the truth that human beings created in the image of a Triune God are social by nature. As a result, “we are all in this together.”

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Ultrasounds provide window to the womb

On January 22, 1973 the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion in the Roe v. Wade decision.

Justice Byron White, who dissented, stated, “The court apparently values the convenience of a pregnant mother more than the continued existence and development of the life or potential life she carries.”

Since Roe v. Wade, 58 million abortions have occurred in our country. This is roughly the population of the United States around 1869.

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On
Kevin Wondrash

A ‘smart people’ problem?

Daniel Dennett, one of the “four horsemen” of contemporary atheism, proposed in 2003 that those who espouse a naturalist, atheist worldview should call themselves “the brights,” thereby distinguishing themselves rather clearly from the dim benighted masses who hold on to supernaturalist convictions.

In the wake of Dennett’s suggestion, many atheists have brought forward what they take to be evidence that the smartest people in society do subscribe to anti-theist views. By “smartest” they usually mean practitioners of the physical sciences, and they point to surveys that indicate only small percentages of scientists subscribe to religious belief.

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On
Ask IPS

How to cope with the seasonal blues

QUESTION: While everyone else seems joyful, I often feel depressed around the holidays. Could you suggest some ways to cope with the holiday blues?

RESPONSE: By William McKenna, M.S., clinical extern at the IPS Center for Psychological Services

We so often hear Christmas songs with lines such as, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” and “Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer!”

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On
Kevin Wondrash

Ridley Scott’s film misses the point

Ridley Scott’s new film Exodus: Gods and Kings features Moses, the Pharaoh, hundreds of thousands of slaves making their way across the floor of the Red Sea, all 10 plagues, the burning bush, and even the angel of Yahweh in the form of a petulant 11-year-old boy with a British accent.

And yet, the movie is spiritually flat, as though its makers had read the biblical story but understood precious little of its theological poetry.

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