Category: Viewpoint
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Viewpoint: Some Items that Caught My Attention Recently
Pope Francis has several times told Cardinals directly that they are not princes of the Church, but shepherds. They should not act like princes, their style of life should be modest, and they should live in simpler quarters.
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Viewpoint: Multicultural Ministry Needs a New Perspective
The newer ethnic and immigrant communities are not the problem; mainstream U.S. Catholic culture is…
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Viewpoint: What Does it Mean to Say that Jesus “Descended Into Hell”?
The Catechism situates Jesus’ descent into hell in a larger context…. Jesus, like all men, experienced death and in his soul joined the others in the realm of the dead.
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Viewpoint: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel: A Christmas Reflection
Emmanuel, God with us, means that the Word of God, the love of God, has taken flesh in you and me.
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Viewpoint: Recovering the Notion of Original Sin
The transition from the Sin of Adam to the Grace of Christ is not a matter of a few minutes of ritual.
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Viewpoint: Rediscovering the Authentic Catholic Vision of Purgatory
The pain of purgatory, then, is not the pain of divine punishment and wrath, but the pain of growth and transformation, the pain of breaking out of the old self into the new.
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Viewpoint: On Praying the Psalms on Behalf of the World
What does it mean to pray this Psalm when life is experienced as positive, fulfilled, and happy, and the supplicant has a strong sense of the closeness of God? – M. Francis Mannion
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Viewpoint: By the Age of Ten, Young Catholics Are Losing Their Faith
by Msgr. M. Francis Mannion Two national studies produced by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), based at Georgetown University, finds that young Catholics are abandoning their faith starting around the age of 10, and certainly by age 17 (Confirmation catechists, please note!). Nearly two-thirds (63%) said they no longer identify themselves as…
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Viewpoint: Should Mass Be Celebrated with the Priest Facing Away from the People?
It would be unwise to change the post-Vatican II practice now. It would cause confusion and irritation. So, I will not start celebrating Mass facing away from the people on the first Sunday of Advent.