Catholic Church

By Father Raymond J. de Souza, National Catholic Register - Since the first sexual-abuse cases emerged into public knowledge in the 1980s and early 1990s, the Church’s response has focused on dealing with allegations in a timely and effective manner and on implementing safe-environment protocols. Any deeper analysis of the ecclesial culture that gave rise to the crisis was largely avoided. That is beginning to change, and Benedict’s essay is a welcome contribution to that development.

By Msgr. Charles Pope - The Acts of the Apostles sets forth an event that amounts to a tale of one Church in two cities or regions. It illustrates well a couple of points: that the Church is always in need of reform and that our lives are not merely about us and what we want. Let’s look at the event in two scenes.

Catholic Culture - A disproportionately high percentage of ordinands attended a Catholic elementary school (47%), Catholic high school (39%), or Catholic college (38%)… In addition, a disproportionately high percentage were home schooled: 11% were home schooled, typically for eight years, at a time when less than 2% of US children were educated at home. If one assumes that all of the homeschooled seminarians came from the United States, then nearly 15% of US-born ordinands were home schooled.

By Fr. Joseph Gill, Ignitum Today - Sri Lanka is less than 10% Catholic, and this was clearly an act of Muslim terrorism aimed directly at Christians on the most holy day of the year… But sadly, this type of Christian persecution is not rare; in fact, it is becoming even more commonplace throughout the world. Even Newsweek magazine (no friend of Christianity), in a January article, admitted that “Christian persecution and genocide is worse now than in any time in history.” But we frequently do not hear about it in the West.