News

By Michael O’Loughlin, America Magazine - With the number of migrants arriving in Massachusetts outpacing available emergency supplies and housing, Boston’s Cardinal Seán O’Malley is urging local Catholics to contribute resources ahead of the winter season. Describing the situation as “a major humanitarian and societal crisis,” the cardinal asked pastors in an Oct. 23 letter “to prepare your parishioners to be ready and willing to assist.”... “The challenge is the fate of immigrants arriving daily in Massachusetts, and in need of basic shelter and compassionate care and welcome”

By Hannah Brockhaus, Catholic News Agency - Synod on Synodality delegates in Rome this month are participating in something called “conversation in the Spirit,” a method of communal discernment based on prayer and listening... “Synodal listening is oriented towards discernment. … We listen to each other, to our faith tradition, and to the signs of the times in order to discern what God is saying to all of us,” says an official handbook for the first, diocesan phase of the yearslong synodal process, which began in 2021 and will conclude in October 2024.

By Richard P. Maggi, Crisis Magazine - History has demonstrated that the Holy Spirit has a way of confounding conventional expectations. Those of us who fear the worst about this synod should show more trust and confidence in the Holy Spirit—that, if we are right about what the Church has and should continue to teach, He will vindicate those views, in whole or in part, between now and the conclusion of next year’s last synod session... In the meantime, until the Church speaks authoritatively, prominent cardinals, bishops, theologians, and faithful Catholics, should continue to respectfully explain why the Church cannot change the contested doctrines. ..