As Catholics, how should we imagine our relationship with the world? We often talk about “walls” and “doors” and “bridges” to explain how the Church should either connect to the world for the sake of evangelizing it or separate herself from the world for the sake of remaining faithful to God.
Faith
When Pope Leo XIV raises three women and four men to the altar Oct. 19, he will canonize a diverse group of religious and lay men and women, all bound by the virtue of holding on to their faith amid personal, spiritual, and external challenges.
Modern hermits seek solitude not to escape the world but to learn how to listen more closely to God, to their neighbors, and to creation, Pope Leo XIV said as he met about 50 Italian hermits who came to the Vatican for the Jubilee of Consecrated Life.
Even as a pre-teen attending St. Monica Catholic School, Steve Rasch showed an interest in the law. Maybe it came from watching movies like “12 Angry Men,” with Henry Fonda, or “The Verdict,” starring Paul Newman.
Six years ago, Marcus Robinson and a few other dads organized a short pilgrimage for their sons. The boys loved it so much that they did the same pilgrimage the following year, and the year after that, inviting more and more people each year.
Crying out to God during moments of extreme trial does not mark a crisis of faith but can reflect an act of total surrender to and enduring trust in God, Pope Leo XIV said.
Even in countries with the strictest separation of Church and state, being a Christian means living and acting like one, Pope Leo XIV told a group of politicians and civic leaders from France.
Father Jay Buhman still remembers the elderly gentleman he encountered weekly, in the middle of the night during perpetual eucharistic adoration. They would greet each other as they switched shifts to pray before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and go on their way; but one day the man revealed that his daughter had left the Catholic Church.
In late 2005, just two months after Hurricane Katrina, the American Institute of Architects tabbed Boston-based urban planner David Dixon to organize a national recovery conference with the goal of providing a roadmap for New Orleans out of the chaos unleashed by the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history.
Nick’s parents, Amy and Corey Weiss, reminisced on this journey from childhood whimsy to God-given vocation and divulged their own experience of accompanying a child through the discernment process.