Catholic Church

By Randall Smith, The Catholic Thing - Hence, we find Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical on “Faith and Reason” (Fides et Ratio) speaking eloquently of a twofold need, increasingly unmet.  The first is “the need for a philosophy of genuinely metaphysical range, capable, that is, of transcending empirical data in order to attain something absolute, ultimate and foundational in its search for truth.” And the second, the need to “recover the sapiential dimension of study as a search for the ultimate and overarching meaning of life.”

By Derek Rotty, Catholic Exchange - One of the best domestic pilgrimage sites lies in Louisiana, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. New Orleans is far more than Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras, or Saints football. New Orleans is a fascinating city with a great Catholic heritage and plenty of wonderful pilgrimage sites. We should all be so blessed to meet the Lord in this city.

By Fr. Gerald E. Murray, First Things - Praying for all the dead on November 2 is a communal act of supernatural charity by the Church Militant for the Church Suffering, praying in union with the Church Triumphant for all those being made ready for heaven. The ancient practice of using black vestments teaches us that death is sorrowful, and that mourning is not a mistaken emotional indulgence, but rather a deeply human expression of love for those who have gone before us.

By John M. Grondelski, Crisis Magzaine - As Catholics enter November and think about Christian death, I draw upon Le Guay’s inspiration to challenge our assumptions about proper treatment of the deceased human body... My purpose here is to focus on cremation as the act of deliberately destroying a human body... The fundamental difference between earth burial and cremation lies in the exercise of human agency vis-à-vis a human body.