Everyone who met Bishop Gumbleton left with an understanding that the world was his congregation and you were simply lucky to have found your way to the center of it.
As Americans waste our civil duties, the question has become whether the country itself has simply collapsed any and all moral standards. Benedictine Sr. Joan Chittister asks: Who tricked us out of ourselves?
Scripture for Life: Concerns about who is in and who is out are as old as nature. As Isaiah, Jesus and Paul knew well, it's hard to free people from their ethnocentrism — the pride being part of an exclusive pack.
Life, the ancients knew, all depends on our willingness to collaborate, to do the things together that are important for us all. That's something we need to remember in this time of agitation and uncertainty.
Rather than spend millions on the Eucharistic Revival, the US bishops should be responding to eucharistic and ministerial scarcity, says columnist Sr. Christine Schenk.
The last time the church said it was going to make changes was in 1965, but all the changes to be seen were basically meaningless ones. This time, though, the faithful themselves are part of the agenda-making process.
Whether it's the process of birthing or a church synod, the addition of women — even in small numbers — can be a leaven that prompts change, says Sr. Christine Schenk.
