We are pleased to present below all posts archived in 'February 2014'. If you still can't find what you are looking for, try using the search box.
QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES – Biology major Seary Balliard is finding there's a lot more to a university education than knowing how the parts of the human body function. She is also learning about the human psyche and the compassion it can share.
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The sainthood process is long and technically complicated, and ultimately requires the approval of the pope, but the whole procedure is driven by Catholics in the pews and, especially, those on their knees. The Congregation for Saints' Causes and the official promoters of causes – known as postulators – do the paperwork, but if there is no evidence of widespread devotion to a candidate, no visits to the person's grave, no reports of favours and even miracles received through the potential saint's intercession, the cause just sits there. Even for centuries.
VATICAN CITY – Despite personal failings and sins, Christians must live and die with hope, leaving behind a legacy of having trusted fully in God, Pope Francis said. "Sinners, yes. Traitors, no! Corrupted, no!" the pope said, encouraging people, no matter how many mistakes they've made, not to stray from Christ and his Church.
The lack of universal awareness that there is no moral obligation to continue medical treatment of those who are brain dead is surely something that must be overcome. (See story on Page 24.) There is no duty to keep a dead person on life support systems in the hope that a miracle may resuscitate that person. Indeed, undue prolongation of care may itself be immoral if it wastes medical resources that could be used to treat other patients.
External appearances can easily fool us, and often do. That's true in every area of human life, and religion is no exception. Some years ago, I lived in a seminary for nearly two years with a young seminarian who, by all outward appearances, appeared to be the ideal candidate for priesthood and ministry. Intelligent, conscientious, prayerful, strongly committed to his studies and with a deep concern for the poor, he seemed above the more mundane and secular concerns of his peers.
St. Paul poses a great question in this Sunday's reading from 1 Corinthians: "Brothers and sisters: Do you not realize that you are the temple of God, and that God's Spirit dwells in you?"
Redemptorist Father Jack Spicer, who died Jan. 31 at age 94, was one of the great visionaries of the Edmonton Archdiocese. There likely were few who believed more in the transformational power of the Holy Scriptures. Nor were there many as dedicated as Spicer to small Christian communities as the most effective vehicle for helping today’s Catholic laity to live their faith.
As a bishop, I subscribe to and read several different publications in a futile attempt to keep up. I never seem to get ahead of the game. Half-jokingly, I tell people that I have a large filing cabinet at home on which are two piles of periodicals and unread books. One pile is comprised of those that I want to read; the other, a much larger pile, that other people think that I ought to read. I usually opt for a selection from the smaller pile.
In 1 Corinthians 13.13, that doughty person St. Paul makes the proposition that has consoled people through centuries, "But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love."
The Catholic Church has taken much deserved criticism over the past 20 years for its record on clergy sexual abuse. For years, the Church did not do enough to prevent abuse, and for years more it treated the victims of abuse shoddily and failed to deal adequately with those who perpetrated abuse and covered it up.