Saturday, April 5, 2025
Friday, April 4, 2025
America the secular?
America the secular? What a changing religious landscape means for US politics
The Conversation: It
will presumably come as no surprise that many secular voters lean to the
political left. It may, however, be surprising to learn that a fairly
large number of nonreligious voters supported President Donald Trump in
the 2020 and 2024 elections.
Faith communities are setting a courageous example for standing up to Trump
Religion News
Service: A growing number of religious communities are responding to the
administration’s hostility to many of their core values and beliefs,
despite having fewer resources than major firms or schools.
Abyssinian Baptist Church welcomes dismissal of pastor candidate’s discrimination suit
Religion News
Service: The Rev. Eboni Marshall Turman, who served in leadership roles
at Abyssinian, including as assistant minister, said in a Wednesday
statement that she is “prayerfully preparing” an appeal.
Ten Commandments, zero context*
The Christian
Century: Many lawmakers want to see the commandments displayed in public
schools. Are they also interested in the Hebrew Bible’s ethical
demands?
US cuts of funds for fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa has many on edge
National Catholic
Reporter: The halting of aid, especially for African health programs, is
a constant worry for African Catholic bishops.
Is the family still fundamental?
Is the family still fundamental?By James Kalb on Apr 03, 2025 10:46 pmLast month, I suggested that subsidiarity comes from the idea that social order begins with the family, and proceeds from there to ever broader communities and ultimately to the whole world. This view makes the [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Snow White survives the discourseBy Joseph F. Martin on Apr 03, 2025 09:37 pmAfter months of online uproar that tagged the new Snow White as everything from “woke heresy” to “committee-made mush,” I braced for impact. So imagine my surprise when I found myself… enjoying it. Is it [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Bishops urge Cameroonians to assert “right and duty” to engage in political lifeBy Ngala Killian Chimtom on Apr 03, 2025 11:30 amAs Cameroon prepares for a Presidential election later this year, Catholic Bishops in the Central African country are warning against apathy, stating that October’s presidential election could be the most consequential in the country. In [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Lenten lessons from Saint PeterBy John M. Grondelski, Ph.D. on Apr 02, 2025 10:38 pmThis week’s Lenten focus on conversion and the old Confiteor takes us to “the holy Apostles, Peter and Paul.” I always liked the description an Australian priest friend once applied to them: they were “two [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Concerns about Amoris Laetitia’s Chapter Eight: A Reply to Pedro GabrielBy Fr. Peter Ryan, SJ on Apr 02, 2025 10:08 pmSince the publication of Amoris Laetitia nine years ago, faithful Catholics from all quarters of the Church have expressed concern about the confusion that has followed in the wake of the Exhortation’s eighth chapter (AL8). We share [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Report: Attacks on Catholics increasingly common and tolerated in Europe and Latin AmericaBy Catholic News Agency on Apr 02, 2025 04:46 pmPolonia Castellanos, founder of the Spanish Association of Christian Lawyers. / Credit: Women World Platform, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Puebla, Mexico, Apr 2, 2025 / 17:46 pm (CNA). Attacks against Christians, especially Catholics, ar... [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Pope St. John Paul II, Doctor of the Church?By George Weigel on Apr 02, 2025 04:00 amThe Catholic Church is prudently patient in awarding the title “Doctor of the Church” to her greatest teachers. However luminous someone’s explication of the truths of the Catholic faith may seem in his or her [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Extra, extra! News and views for Wednesday, April 2, 2025By CWR Staff on Apr 02, 2025 03:00 amHamas’s Bloodthirsty Rule – “Gazan protests against Hamas’s failed leadership broke out on Tuesday and continued throughout the Strip on Wednesday, the first public opposition shown to Hamas’s rule since the October 7 attacks.” Anti-Hamas [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() The Prophetic Witness of St. John Paul IIBy Carl E. Olson on Apr 01, 2025 07:00 pmEditor’s note: This essay originally appeared on CWR on April 1, 2015, and is reposted here, in slightly different form, to mark the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death on April 2, 2005. [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Contemplating life and love with St. Pope John Paul IIBy Susan Ciancio on Apr 01, 2025 05:07 pmTwenty years ago, on April 2, 2005, St. John Paul II died, ending his 26-year pontificate. Throughout his long pontificate, he boldly taught the importance of building a culture of life. In Evangelium Vitae (given [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() On offices as hell, Severance, and white-collar workBy Andrew Petiprin on Mar 31, 2025 07:35 pmA little more than two years ago, I wrote my first regular column here at Catholic World Report, and it was about work. I was reflecting on a trip I took to England as part [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() “Let the children come to me”By Nick Olszyk on Mar 31, 2025 05:00 pmMPAA Rating: PG Reel Rating: 3.5 out of 5 reels Cancer is a horrible, traitorous disease in which cells are warped and attack the body they serve. This is always tragic, but even more egregious [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Lourdes bishop covers Rupnik mosaics on doors to Basilica of the RosaryBy Catholic News Agency on Mar 31, 2025 10:03 amMosaics by alleged abuser Father Marko Rupnik are displayed throughout the shrine in Lourdes, France. / Credit: Courtney Mares/CNA Rome Newsroom, Mar 31, 2025 / 11:03 am (CNA). The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in France announced Monday that t... [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() What it Means to be a Body: A Philosophical PrimerBy Matthew Nelson on Mar 31, 2025 04:00 amGender-altering surgeries. Abortion on demand. “Swingers Break”, offering spring breakers “a personal paradise where you can explore and enjoy all your hedonistic desires” (yes, all one’s hedonistic desires). Pope John Paul II warned us that by abandoning [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() New song and video pay tribute to Carlo Acutis and the EucharistBy Kathy Schiffer on Mar 30, 2025 07:09 pmOn April 27th, during the Vatican’s Jubilee of Teenagers, Pope Francis will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis. Carlo, who died of leukemia in 2005, was a computer geek who loved video games. More than that, though, [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Supreme Court to review Colorado ban on “conversion therapy”By Charles J. Russo on Mar 30, 2025 05:41 pmOn March 11, 2025, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Chiles v. Salazar this fall, The case challenges a Colorado law infringing on the free speech rights of a licensed Christian counselor who provided “conversion therapy” [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() AI, the Technocratic Paradigm, and Integral Human FulfillmentBy Deacon David H. Delaney, Ph.D. on Mar 29, 2025 04:20 pmAt the end of January, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, together with the Dicastery for Culture and Education, released a document entitled Antiqua et nova: A Note on the Relationship Between Artificial [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() The Parable of the Merciful FatherBy Carl E. Olson on Mar 29, 2025 04:00 pmReadings: • Jos 5:9a, 10-12 • Psa 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7 • 2 Cor 5:17-21 • Lk 15:1-3, 11-32 The parable of the prodigal son is, along with the parable of the good Samaritan, the best-known [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() The Theotokos in Lent: Reflections on The Akathist HymnBy David Paul Deavel on Mar 28, 2025 08:00 pmThe Lenten journey is one of following Christ. Throughout the ages, a great many Lenten hymns, prayers, and devotions involving Mary have developed. That’s not surprising at all. For Lent is about standing up and [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() Be free: Experiencing the promise of the Jubilee YearBy Dr. R. Jared Staudt on Mar 28, 2025 05:00 pmWhy does the Church celebrate Jubilee years? The concept comes from the Old Testament, marking the completion of seven cycles of sabbath years, a time of rest given to the land every seven years. In [...] Read in browser » ![]() ![]() |
Thursday, April 3, 2025
1,700th anniversary of First Council of Nicaea
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On 20 May 2025, the Christian world will commemorate the 1700th anniversary of the opening of the Council of Nicaea, which took place in Asia Minor in the year 325. This was the first ecumenical council in history, and it produced the creed that, completed by the First Council of Constantinople in 381, has become the distinctive expression of the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ. This anniversary occurs within the Jubilee Year, which is centred on the theme “Christ our Hope,” and it coincides with the common celebration of Easter by Christians of both East and West. As Pope Francis has emphasized, in this historic moment—marked by the tragedy of war along with countless anxieties and uncertainties—what is essential, most beautiful, most attractive, and also most necessary for Christians is precisely the faith in Jesus Christ proclaimed at Nicaea. Indeed, the proclamation of this faith is “the fundamental task of the Church” (Address to Participants in the Plenary Assembly of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, 26 January 2024).
The International Theological Commission has now published an important and comprehensive document entitled, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior: The 1700th Anniversary of the Ecumenical Council of Nicaea.” It aims not only to recall the nature and significance of the Council, given its great historical importance for the Church, but also to highlight the extraordinary resources that the Nicene creed, continuously professed up to our own time, contains and re-proposes, especially in view of the new phase of evangelization that the Church is presently called to undertake. The document also highlights the relevance of these resources for a responsible and shared approach to addressing the epochal changes that are impacting culture and society worldwide. For the faith professed at Nicaea makes us see the explosive and enduring newness of the coming of the Son of God among us. It encourages us to expand our hearts and minds in order to welcome and engage with the gift of this decisive insight into the meaning and direction of history in light of the God who, through his only-begotten Son, to whom he communicates the fullness of his own life, makes us participants in that life through the Incarnation, and generously bestows on all the breath of the Holy Spirit, which overcomes all barriers: a breath of freedom from selfishness, of openness to reciprocal relationships, and of communion with others.
A bishop of the Arctic says goodbye
Research
shows that a majority of Christian religious leaders accept the reality
of climate change but have never mentioned it to their congregations
The Conversation:
While the overwhelming majority of Christian religious leaders accept
the human-driven reality of climate change, nearly half have never
mentioned climate change or humans’ role in it to their congregations.
Judge rules against former SBC President Johnny Hunt in Guidepost defamation suit
Religion News
Service: One claim, about an allegedly defamatory tweet by another
former denominational president, is still live. The SBC has spent more
than $3 million in legal fees on the Hunt case.
A bishop of the Arctic says goodbye
Religion News
Service: As Canada’s Anglican church dwindles, its most remote (and most
expansive) diocese has shown growth. One bishop responsible for that
trend is retiring, leaving his successor to find clergy willing to take
on the Arctic’s challenges.
New Orleans clergy abuse survivors say they’ve lost confidence in case’s judge
The Guardian:
Comments come after it was revealed judge ignored the Department of
Justice’s recommendations against expelling survivors from panel.
Georgia lawmakers pass religious freedom bill despite discrimination concerns
The Associated Press:
Lawmakers in Georgia’s House passed a controversial bill Wednesday that
aims to protect people’s rights to express their religion, but that
critics say could lead to discrimination.