Laudato Si is so complete and so radical that it will take years for us to unpack it fully. There is a lot there, but one of the themes that has most moved me (and this was not surprising) is encapsulated by this statement from the introduction: “The violence present in our hearts, wounded by ...read more

Very few of us would argue that we have to care for the environment, in fact Pope Francis has said that it is our moral duty to care for Creation (Morning Homily from Feb 9, 2015). How does this notion square with the idea that Scripture tells us to dominate and subdue the earth? I ...read more

A few events the last couple weeks have led me to today’s reflection. Primarily, the fact that the Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will be releasing his second Encyclical later this month and that the topic of this papal document is the ecology. Add to that, the incredible response the news has garnered from ...read more

On the evening of June 3, 1963, as Mass was being celebrated in the plaza below his window, Pope John XXIII quietly passed away. He had been suffering from stomach cancer for some time, although his illness had only been revealed to the public in March of that same year. Still, he faced that final ...read more

The problem with holiness is that we don’t think it’s for us. We believe that we are made for Heaven. We believe that God wants us to go to Heaven, but how many of us would say that we belong in Heaven? How many of us would say that we are going to Heaven? Sure, ...read more

“The gift of the Holy Spirit renews the earth” Pope Francis against the backdrop of St Peter’s Basilica and dressed in scarlet vestments, celebrated Mass on Pentecost Sunday. In his homily, the Holy Father began by focusing on Sunday’s readings saying that, “the word of God, tells us that the Spirit is at work in individuals ...read more

Last time ,we looked at what Scriptures tell us about Heaven. Perhaps we do know more about Heaven than we think. Well, I guess, at least we know with certainty that we are going to die. So what happens when we die? We believe that we will be judged for our actions during this life. But ...read more

At 10:00 this morning, El Salvador time, in the Plaza del Divino Salvador del Mundo in San Salvador, the Mass of Beatification took place for Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, born on August 15, 1917 Ciudad Barrios (El Salvador) and martyred for “odium fidei” (hatred of the faith) on March 24, 1980 while celebrating ...read more

Traditionally, the church recognizes someone as a martyr when he or she refuses  to renounce their faith and is killed as a result. The beatification of Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was killed, opens the door to a new, expanded definition of martyrdom. Romero, who was gunned down while celebrating Mass, was never pressured to renounce ...read more

All around us, this miracle of nature reveals the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit. Fifty days after the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead, we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost – when the same Spirit who at the dawn of time hovered over the chaos of nothingness to give us God’s gift of ...read more