Columns

When Pope John Paul II first called for a New Evangelization 30 years ago, it did not rank high on the Richter scale. Over the ensuing years, he spoke increasingly of the need for new methods of bringing the Gospel to formerly Christian countries. He also called for greater zeal and new ways to express eternal truths.

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

Several years ago, at a conference that I attended, the keynote speaker challenged his audience in this way: All of us are members of various communities: we live in families, are part of Church congregations, have colleagues with whom we work, have a circle of friends and are part of a larger civic community.

JOHN CONNELLY

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 30, 2013

Jesus calls each of us to a profound interior freedom that is not of this world. It is a freedom that sees through the empty promises of fame, wealth, power and worldly wisdom. It is a freedom that no political system and no human force can take away. It is the freedom of divine love and mercy.

GORDON SELF

At a conference last year I tried to take to heart plenary speaker Sister Helen Prejean's words of challenge. I say, "try" as I wondered if I would have the same spirit of compassion and forgiveness under the same circumstances she witnessed.

FR. ROBERT BARRON

Some years ago, The New Yorker ran a cartoon that perfectly lampooned the loopy ideology of "inclusion" that has come to characterize so much of the Christian world.

Already the drumbeats of the October civic election are thumping throughout the media. A new mayor for sure. And new councillors too, depending on retirements, resignations, being bounced out at the polls. Feeling the nudge of responsibility yet?

FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

As a young seminarian in the late 1960s, I was very taken by the writings of Andrew Greeley, a priest in Chicago, who was churning out books on popular spirituality. I found his approach wonderfully refreshing because, at least to my mind, he dealt with our perennial religious struggles in a way that was both more realistic and more hope-filled than most of the religious literature to which I had then been exposed.

KATHLEEN GIFFIN

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 23, 2013

Many years ago, a relative whom I had only once met went through a time of great difficulty. The situation I was in at that time was such that I had the opportunity to reach out with some concrete help.

MARK PICKUP

When I heard that Henry Morgentaler had died, my initial response was a hope that he experienced a deathbed conversion.

FR. RAYMOND DE SOUZA

A year ago I visited the Diocese of Whitehorse, heading north to the Yukon for the first time. Last week, the bishop of Whitehorse – which comprises all of the Yukon and a little of northern British Columbia – returned the visit as it were, preaching the priests' retreat for the Archdiocese of Kingston, here in the Thousand Islands.