Catholic News & Perspective
September 2023
St. Thérèse’s ‘Little Way’ of love
by Catherine Cavadini Some Sundays the Lectionary for Mass provides optional readings for the memorials of the saints. This is the case this Sunday, which coincides with the memorial of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, also known as the “Little Flower.” I thought I might take up these optional readings for this...
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Aiming for excellence rather than achievements
by Leonard J. DeLorenzo Back in 2009, the New York Times ran a series with the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, William Fitzsimmons. It was a fascinating series in which prospective students, parents, guidance counselors, and others wrote in with questions for Fitzsimmons, who commented on admissions’...
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‘What Is Love?’ New film draws inspiration from Pope St. John Paul II
by Katie Yoder After exploring love worldwide for a new documentary, Steve Bollman shared a finding that surprised him: How universal the desire for lasting love is. “We have some very interesting stories filmed in some interesting locations,” the writer, director and producer of “What Is Love?” told Our Sunday...
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The strange gift of grace
by Father Joshua J. Whitfield This parable from Matthew about the landowner and his laborers, a story about equal pay for unequal work, teaches us something about the inscrutable justice of God and the strange calculations of his mercy. It unsettles our ideas of grace, in a good way. Grace is a promise, yes; a contract binding the...
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Disney+ has reached their absolute lowest with this new series
Disney is creating a buzz with its newest foray into programming for mature audiences as it debuts “Pauline,” a series about a teen girl who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with Satan. Yes, you read that right. The production company once synonymous with family-friendly programming is jumping into bed with...
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How U.S. Catholics should be thinking about the pope’s recent comments
by Msgr. Owen F. Campion In Lisbon for World Youth Day, Pope Francis met informally with Portuguese Jesuits. The discussion has been widely reported. He did not raise the topic of Catholicism in this country, but he heard, and responded to, a Portuguese Jesuit’s impressions formed after living for a while in the United...
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The reality of sin and forgiveness
by Catherine Cavadini A boggy marsh: This is how Dante imagines the reality of anger in his “Inferno.” Greed looks like the eternal weight of a heavy stone pressing against one’s chest. Our readings for this Sunday present these sins in contrast to the blissful happiness of forgiveness. Matthew’s Gospel...
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The saint who guided the Church through turbulent times
by Russell Shaw If, as I expect, there is a reward in heaven for doing your duty, Pope Paul VI’s heavenly reward must be great indeed. For this was a pope who at the turning point of his pontificate not only did his duty but, thereafter, paid dearly for having done it. Perhaps, in a general way, he saw it coming. Six weeks after he...
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Who am I to forgive?
by Father Joshua J. Whitfield he Gospel reading this Sunday is tricky in at least one sense because of two little Greek words found in verse 15: eis se. Translated “against you,” the thing is they’re not found in some rather important ancient manuscripts. For instance, they’re found in neither the Codex...
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How to live like saints in a secular age
by Bob Pfunder My daughter goes to a Catholic elementary school with a robust religious life. Catholic identity here is more than just tenets of belief. It’s gritty. It’s multi-sensory. This past May, she and I spent an evening picking out flowers together for a school-wide May crowning ceremony. I look forward to it...
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Customs of faith weave into the culture of the family home
by Leonard J. DeLorenzo It is customary to assume that children rebel against their parents. What is often discounted, though, is just how strong the influence of parents is. If children do rebel, it is rebellion against the standard the parents have established. Rebellion itself shows the outsized influence of parents. It turns out,...
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We now know more about the effects of abuse
by Msgr. Owen F. Campion Somebody who knows the history of the problem should write a book, or give an interview, or go on television, or do something, because a vital part of the clergy sex abuse story is never told and opinions are distorted. Catholic bishops and religious superiors who acted, or failed to act, when cases of...
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Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
by Catherine Cavadini Whenever we pray the “Our Father,” we address God, asking: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” It may not seem at first glance that this is what the readings for this Sunday are about. But that is only the case if we isolate this Sunday’s readings from all the preceding weeks in...
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