Catholic Church

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing - Since last summer, much of the discussion about the abuse crisis has focused on justice for victims, accountability for bishops, and the role laypeople can and must play in renewing the Church. There are obvious reasons for these emphases. Yet in a somewhat ironic twist, there has been less attention paid to the ways in which our priests have experienced the crisis… For many of the priests I’ve spoken to, the last year has been a double trial. ...

By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency - Fr. Giacomo Costa, a communications official for the Amazon synod, said Wednesday a wooden figure of a nude pregnant woman, which has been present at events related to the synod, is not the Virgin Mary, but is instead a female figure representing life… The wooden figure of a pregnant woman has been described as both a Marian image and as a traditional indigenous religious symbol of the goddess Pachamama, or Mother Earth.

By Father Carter Griffin, Catholic Exchange - Like many conversion stories, my path to Rome began with the witness of faithful Catholics, the reading of good books, and the fits and starts of a life of prayer. I was in college at the time. At the end of one of our sessions, the priest who was giving me instructions said, almost in passing, that perhaps I would join him at the altar one day… At this point, mind you, I was not even Catholic; I wasn’t even sure I wanted to be Catholic; and I was very certain that I would never be a celibate priest. I went away stewing on what he said; I was appalled at the very idea of becoming a priest, and frankly thought it rather brazen of him to suggest it.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - When the police raid on Vatican offices was followed by the resignation of the Vatican’s top police official. We still don’t know what happened but it’s abundantly clear that another “turf war” has begun— or perhaps I should say “escalated”— inside the Vatican, precipitated by an investigation into questionable financial deals… In the National Catholic Register, Edward Pentin provides an excellent summary of what we know and what we can readily infer.