Freedom and rights belong to people not because they have already attained the truth, but in order that they might reach it. Archbishop Denis Hurley, OMI Archbishop of Durban, Natal-KwaZulu, South Africa 1915-2004 A leader in the Church during Vatican II and in the struggle against Apartheid. CNS photo/Paul Jeffrey Sister Ninet D’Costa teaches in Malakal, ...read more

– CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters Pope Benedict XVI looks through a microscope during his visit to the headquarters of the Vatican Observatory in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, Sept. 16, 2009. Dialogue and cooperation between faith and science are urgently needed for building a culture that respects people and the planet, the pope said in Nov. ...read more

Tonight on perspectives pope Benedict announces that the Vatican delegation to Syria will not be sent, and the Holy Father congratulates Barack Obama for his re-election. ...read more

To be contemplative as Christ is contemplative is to be open to all the fullness that the Father wishes to pour into our hearts. With our minds made still and ready to receive, with our self-generated fantasies about God and ourselves reduced to silence, we are at last at the point where we may begin ...read more

The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, ...read more

S+L’s Kris Dmytrenko is walking the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage in Spain. He may write regular updates for the blog, or he may not until he reaches the end–as the spirit (and wifi availability) leads him. The Camino de Santiago is infused with Spanish Catholicism — as it should be, since this walking pilgrimage leads ...read more

The presence of Mary, Mother of Christ, is close to us. I entrust each one of you to this Mother. Because she is the source of our consolation and therefore of our hopes. Because the Mother of Christ, and our Mother, can give you the love of God as a gift. I want to entrust ...read more

Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him. Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us ...read more

Should we, as Catholics, worry about ecology? Didn’  God give us the earth to take care of and use it responsibly? In his message for the World Day of Peace in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI chose the theme If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation. In this message he says “‘creation is the beginning ...read more

Faith is certain. It is more certain than all human knowledge because it is founded on the very word of God who cannot lie. To be sure, revealed truths can seem obscure to human reason and experience, but “the certainty that the divine light gives is greater than that which the light of natural reason ...read more