Catholic Church

By Joshua Hren, Crisis Magazine - Of course, an Anno Iustitiae wouldn’t the antimony of the Anno Misericordiam, but its necessary corollary. A person is said to be merciful, Aquinas observes, when he knows sorrow in his heart (miserum cor) over the miseries of another, and then tries to dispel those miseries as if they were his own. Given His nature, God doesn’t sorrow over human woes, but our dolors move Him to “dispel that misery, whatever be the defect we call by that name.”

By Msgr. Charles Pope - In the Office of Readings, we have been reading from the Prophet Micah. The book contains much in the way of both warning and consolation for the ancient Jewish people, who saw great destruction all around them. During Micah’s lifetime, he and his fellow Jews in Judah saw the whole of the northern Kingdom of Israel swept away by the Assyrians. In 721 B.C., ten of Israel’s tribes were destroyed; the survivors were scattered and all but lost. The southern Kingdom of Judah, which was also under attack, barely survived, as if by a miracle.

By Philip Lawler,  First Things - The matter at hand… is whether Pope Francis can eradicate the teaching legacy of Pope John Paul II, particularly on questions of human sexuality… Oddly enough, this summer’s dispute involves a Vatican body named after the canonized former pontiff: the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences. Since its inception, the Institute (which was originally known by the slightly simpler name, the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family) had been an academic greenhouse nourishing the thought that St. John Paul had promoted: explaining the “culture of life” and the “theology of the body.”