In the second week of Lent, as Catholics moved into their preparation for Easter, the Church asked us to reflect on the Lord’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus. We recall the story of the rich man dressed in the finest clothes, dining sumptuously every day, and the poor…
Leave a CommentAuthor: John J. Carroll, SJ
Early in the morning of Feb. 22, 1986, Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J. was called upon to put his money where his mouth was. Claver had been the main author of the bishops’ post-election statement which declared that in their considered judgment “the polls were unparalleled in the fraudulence of their…
Leave a CommentHistorian Alfred W. McCoy made headlines in the Philippines when, shortly before the snap election of 1986, he showed that the medals for valor as a guerrilla leader claimed by President Ferdinand Marcos were fake. Since then he has by his archival research turned over more rocks to reveal the creepy…
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It is said that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. With this in mind, Matthew Connelly, professor of history at Columbia University, has written “Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population.” In great detail and with abundant documentation he traces the story of mainly well-meaning people…
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Picking up on the article of Fr. Gregory Gaston (“Population trends: lessons for RP,” Inquirer, 1/3/10) Rosie Brillantes-Luistro (“Population bomb theory defused,” Inquirer, 1/23/10) warns against measures to reduce population growth. She speaks of what has been called a “demographic winter,” i.e., a situation in which a society has too…
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It was December 29, years ago, and I was spending the Christmas holidays with a friend, a parish priest in a tiny village in the Dolomite Mountains, between Italy and Austria. Towering cliffs of pink Dolomite rock, topped with snow, stood out against a deep blue sky. Many of the…
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‘For he is our peace’ (Eph. 2:14)
As I watched Christ’s faithful gather symbolically in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday, around Calvary’s cross on Good Friday, and at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, a wave of joy flowed over me. Swept up like a chip of wood on the surface of a boiling wave by…