RENDER TO CAESAR
As Christians we are called to engage the world and bring our beliefs with us into Caesar’s domain. Vatican II reminded us to take our faith into the marketplace and interpret our times in the light of the gospel. If we have any doubts, all we have to do is to read papal and episcopal documents that address the most pressing issues of our day: poverty, globalization, war, the death penalty, health care, environment, the economy, etc. But the church of Jesus’ followers doesn’t exist apart from the world and we are called to be agents of change for peace and justice.
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Sixteen years after a Vatican cardinal dismissed the abuse crisis as “petty gossip,” Pope Leo XIV sat with survivors at Lourdes. Benedict and Francis made the American pope possible. Inside of 15 years the Roman Catholic Church changed its reputation from “backwards cabal of evil pedophilic rapists” to “the only major international social force taking a firm, humanist leadership role on the issues of the day”
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By embracing a properly Catholic and incarnational approach to bringing Christ’s presence to the world, we direct our efforts toward building communion with our neighbors through listening, dialogue, service, and shared discernment.
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Debates over ancient evidence on women’s ordination miss the point: Jesus affirmed women’s full discipleship, and the real question is what the Church must create for this century, not past ones. Until we start with this century instead of past ones, the question of ordaining women or even men to a particular ministry is of no use to the mission of the Church.
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A mid-September symposium in Austria produced the workings of a European "roadmap" for the next synodal assembly in 2028, addressing the continent's "wounds and challenges," while also focusing on transformation.
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On the Vatican Note “A Journey of Hope”- Most significant about the Note is that it offers a new reading of Nostra Aetate in light of today’s postmodern context, a context that was only beginning to dawn at the time of the Second Vatican Council.
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Learning to love oneself certainly involves developing a capacity to accept God’s forgiveness and forgive oneself. Beyond that, though, we are challenged to develop a spiritual world whose foundation is not based on guilt or fear. It is one thing to behave in a certain way to avoid being punished.
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Forming virtue from inside out and outside in. While there are maximal reasons for despair, the communion of past with future time has always been the active achievement of any human community that works to scrape out a home in the world.
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May we endure a little longer in the service of our fellow human beings, helping to lighten the load of those who endure far too much injustice. And to look closer, both within ourselves and our communities, to search and to find God’s image in everyone we meet. Then, we may discover that lasting and true peace that can only be found when we give ourselves in selfless service to others.
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