News

By Msgr. Charles Pope - After some sobering reflection on death and judgment over the past several days, it’s finally time to talk about Heaven. Now that is a topic everyone wants to hear about! Yet there is a strange disconnect today. As it becomes easier and easier to satisfy our desire for instant gratification, we find it harder and harder to take the time to ponder a future paradise… Almost no one talks about Heaven today—except perhaps at funerals—and then it is often to inappropriately presume the instant promotion of the deceased through Heaven’s gate.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - The most interesting episode of the USCCB meeting also touched on relations between the American bishops and the Roman Pontiff. In debate on the draft of an election-year statement that referred to abortion as a “preeminent priority because it directly attacks life itself”… The US bishops have been discussing the nuances of the “seamless garment” approach for decades now, and have regularly found ways to negotiate their differences. But this year Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego raised the stakes immeasurably by launching a direct attack on the pro-life primacy. “It is not Catholic teaching that abortion is the preeminent issue that we face,” he said…

By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza, EWTN News - “Who speaks for the American bishops?”… That question was put to me by a senior member of the inner circle of Pope Francis when I was in Rome in October. The plenary meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this week in Baltimore did not clarify that, and in fact, may have made the question more obscure… The U.S. bishops elected their president and vice president: Archbishops José Gomez of Los Angeles and Allen Vigneron of Detroit. But who speaks for bishops is not determined by official office.