The Christian blessing is more than a nice gesture, writes Bert Ghezzi   I used to make the sign of the cross casually as a nice gesture for beginning and ending my prayers. More than a decade ago, probably nudged by the Holy Spirit, I began to take it more seriously. I began to sign…

Dualta Roughneen   In a document that covers an enormous amount of ground, the Church risks upsetting and assuaging critics on both sides of the societal divide as it addresses the fundamental issue of human dignity in the latest Declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith Dignitas Infinita. What is the meaning…

Sr Anne Marie Walsh SOLT     “Your beliefs don’t make you a good person. Your behaviour does.” This is a meme that floats around Facebook every so often, but the idea has been around from the beginning of time. It’s been noted that the devil believes in God but is no better off for…

The virtue of justice is fundamental for peaceful coexistence, writes Pope Francis   Here we are at the second of the cardinal virtues: today we will talk about justice. It is the quintessential social virtue. The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines it as “the moral virtue that consists in the constant and firm will…

Jaymie Stuart Wolfe     “We are an Easter people and ‘alleluia’ is our song.” We love to quote St Augustine when we talk about what the church of Jesus Christ is. And honestly, there may be no better description. But I think a lot of us, somewhere along the line, have lost hope that…

Carl E. Olson   It is something of a tradition for magazines and newspapers to run articles about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the weeks leading up to Easter. Scholars, pastors, skeptics and ordinary people weigh in with their opinions. Some argue the Resurrection never took place. Down through time there have…

The current political world can be dispiriting but there are ways in which you can affirm both faith and political beliefs, writes Charlie Camosy   Kenneth Craycraft, associate professor of moral theology at Mount St Mary’s Seminary and School of Theology in Cincinnati, Ohio, has a new book, Citizens Yet Strangers: Living Authentically Catholic in…

Carl E. Olson The Norwegian bishop and Trappist monk Erik Varden, still shy of 50, has established himself as a spiritual writer, retreat leader and prelate of the highest order. Raised in a non-practicing Lutheran home in a village in Norway, he was a teenage “agnostic” who was “hostile” to Christianity. His conversion to the…

Greg Erlandson   This year, I’m glad to see Lent come to an end, and not just because of Easter Alleluias and Cadbury dark chocolate eggs. It was a tough Lent. Part of it, of course, had nothing explicitly to do with Lent. The news has generally been dreadful, a reminder, I suppose of why…