Catholic News & Perspective

September 2023

Sep 20

Disney+ has reached their absolute lowest with this new series

Disney is creating a buzz with its newest foray into programming for mature audiences as it debuts “Pauline,” a series about a teen girl who finds herself pregnant after a one-night stand with Satan. Yes, you read that right. The production company once synonymous with family-friendly programming is jumping into bed with...
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Sep 18

How U.S. Catholics should be thinking about the pope’s recent comments

by Msgr. Owen F. Campion In Lisbon for World Youth Day, Pope Francis met informally with Portuguese Jesuits. The discussion has been widely reported. He did not raise the topic of Catholicism in this country, but he heard, and responded to, a Portuguese Jesuit’s impressions formed after living for a while in the United...
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Sep 15

The reality of sin and forgiveness

by Catherine Cavadini A boggy marsh: This is how Dante imagines the reality of anger in his “Inferno.” Greed looks like the eternal weight of a heavy stone pressing against one’s chest. Our readings for this Sunday present these sins in contrast to the blissful happiness of forgiveness. Matthew’s Gospel...
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Sep 11

The saint who guided the Church through turbulent times

by Russell Shaw If, as I expect, there is a reward in heaven for doing your duty, Pope Paul VI’s heavenly reward must be great indeed. For this was a pope who at the turning point of his pontificate not only did his duty but, thereafter, paid dearly for having done it. Perhaps, in a general way, he saw it coming. Six weeks after he...
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Sep 8

Who am I to forgive?

by Father Joshua J. Whitfield he Gospel reading this Sunday is tricky in at least one sense because of two little Greek words found in verse 15: eis se. Translated “against you,” the thing is they’re not found in some rather important ancient manuscripts. For instance, they’re found in neither the Codex...
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Sep 7

How to live like saints in a secular age

by Bob Pfunder My daughter goes to a Catholic elementary school with a robust religious life. Catholic identity here is more than just tenets of belief. It’s gritty. It’s multi-sensory. This past May, she and I spent an evening picking out flowers together for a school-wide May crowning ceremony. I look forward to it...
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Sep 6

Customs of faith weave into the culture of the family home

by Leonard J. DeLorenzo It is customary to assume that children rebel against their parents. What is often discounted, though, is just how strong the influence of parents is. If children do rebel, it is rebellion against the standard the parents have established. Rebellion itself shows the outsized influence of parents. It turns out,...
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Sep 4

We now know more about the effects of abuse

by Msgr. Owen F. Campion Somebody who knows the history of the problem should write a book, or give an interview, or go on television, or do something, because a vital part of the clergy sex abuse story is never told and opinions are distorted. Catholic bishops and religious superiors who acted, or failed to act, when cases of...
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Sep 1

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done

by Catherine Cavadini Whenever we pray the “Our Father,” we address God, asking: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.” It may not seem at first glance that this is what the readings for this Sunday are about. But that is only the case if we isolate this Sunday’s readings from all the preceding weeks in...
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