From the pulpit where he stood one day last week, Richard James Cardinal Cushing, 68, looked down not at the familiar Irish faces of his own Boston congregation but rather into the docile and questioning gaze of brown Peruvian eyes. The occasion was the blessing of a new brick-and-concrete Roman Catholic church in a slum suburb of Lima.
Tag Archives: church
Religion: Mater et Magistra
The most important social statement of the Roman Catholic Church in recent centuries has been a document known as Rerum Novarum * issued on May 15, 1891 by 81-year-old Leo XIII as a papal encyclical—an open letter to the bishops of the church.
Seth Walsh, Gay Boy Bullied into Suicide, Remembered
Eleven-year-old Shawn Walsh paid a poignant tribute to the brother, just two years older, he had lost. Gripping a microphone as he stood at the altar of the First Baptist Church in Tehachapi, Calif., Shawn joshed that his brother could be “a pain in the butt” at times but that Seth was “the best big brother in the world — no, the galaxy.” Wearing a yellow
The Pope and Birth Control: A Crisis in Catholic Authority
ROME has spoken,” runs an ancient proverb of the Roman Catholic Church. “The case is closed.” No longer true.
Man of the Year: Pope John XXIII
The Year of Our Lord 1962 was a year of American resolve, Russian orbiting, European union and Chinese war. In a tense yet hope-filled time, these were the events that dominated conversation and invited history’s scrutiny
Dominique Strauss-Kahn in Court: Trial of Century Begins
The scrum of reporters assembles in the pre-dawn quiet two blocks from the border of Chinatown. It is more than two hours before Dominique Strauss-Kahn is scheduled to make an appearance, but it doesn’t matter.
Religion: Council of Renewal
A fortnight hence in the Vatican, 2,600 bishops of the Roman Catholic Church will meet in a gathering so rare that only 20 others like it have been convened in the 20 centuries of Christian history. The purpose of the Second Vatican Council is what His Holiness Pope John XXIII, who has the Catholic prelate's traditional wariness of words that suggest drastic change, calls an aggiornamento—a modernization.
Controversial Study Links Catholic Abuse to ’60s Culture and Church Hierarchy, but Offers Few Solutions
A sweeping study released Wednesday covering 60 years of sexual abuse allegations against the U.S.
Catholic Church Fights Gay Marriage, Activists Regroup
When America’s Catholic bishops gather next week in Baltimore for a four-day conference, they will hear an update on the Catholic Church’s ongoing fight to convince the country that marriage as an institution should never include gay couples, and they’ll get a sneak peek at how that fight will be waged in the coming year. Videos aimed at priests and deacons are being produced in English and Spanish to give the pastors better tools to reach their parishioners, especially young people, whom the church fears need reminding about its basic teachings on marriage, love and sex.
Holy Enrollers: Why Boomers Are Going to Divinity School
In July, 64-year-old Patrice Fike sold her home in Coral Gables, Fla., and her Mercedes, stored most of her furniture and moved into a one-room studio where many of her meals are provided.