Tag: Leaders & Institutions

The Rev. Christine Marr once called herself a “book Buddhist.” She read about the faith and studied its philosophies, but didn’t belong to a sangha.

She didn’t know she needed one, she said.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the top U.S. Catholic prelate, says the Roman Catholic Church has to make sure that its defense of traditional marriage is not reduced to an attack on gays and lesbians.
Dolan is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and last month was reputed to have gathered some votes in the Vatican conclave where Pope Francis was eventually elected.

VATICAN CITY (RNS) The Vatican on Friday (March 29) dismissed criticism of Pope Francis’ decision to wash the feet of two women during a Maundy Thursday Mass at a Rome youth prison.
The move has come under fire from Catholic traditionalists who say that the rite is a re-enactment of Jesus washing the feet of the 12 apostles before his death, and thus should be limited only to men.

In his first general audience since his election to the papacy, Pope Francis on Wednesday (March 27) urged Catholics to leave their comfort zone to search for  “lost sheep.”

The sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church is huge and continually unraveling throughout the world, country by country. It’s sick and tragic. It’s infuriating and mind-boggling. It is actually not a new concern, which is awful, and it will not be healed soon. The truth of the crisis is that it’s rooted in the Catholic belief on priestly ordination and to open up that can is to see all of the worms such as married men and women in the priesthood.

Now that the cardinals have elected and installed their new boss, Pope Francis can get to work being the Roman Catholic pontiff, with his next order of business doing something no other pope has done in centuries: meet the guy he replaced.

Last week the Roman Catholic Church selected its new pope. As pastor of St. Clare, a non-Roman Catholic community, I have been asked a number of times over the past week about my thoughts about the new pope. Since this question has come up so often, in so many contexts, I thought it would be worth sharing my thoughts here.