Practicing (not just) Catholic

Megan Sweas| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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The choices in line for the "cafeteria Catholic" have expanded in recent years. Instead of simply choosing the pieces of Catholicism that they like, Catholics can--and do, according to a recent study--choose what they like from any number of faith traditions.

A Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life poll found that six in 10 Americans blend practices and beliefs from a variety of traditions, including New Age spirituality.


Bring the bacon to church

Megan Sweas| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
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I love brunch. It has to be the best meal ever, but it is decidedly not a religious experience.

For some young adults, this Chicago Tribune article posits, brunch fills up more than their stomachs. "The meal is part sustenance, part social; a way for young, urban and, increasingly, secular adults to connect with one another on Sunday mornings."


Season's Greetings: Let's welcome Catholics home

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church
If we're going to invite disaffected Catholics to come on home, let's also warm up the welcome they're likely to receive.

There's no shortage of programs to draw missing Catholics back to church, but few can boast of their efforts in a single diocese as "an increase of 92,000 souls who came home!" Such is the claim of Catholics Come Home, a new evangelization effort first tested in the Diocese of Phoenix and now expanding to 16 others, including my own Archdiocese of Chicago, which hired Catholics Come Home for a holiday TV ad campaign designed to bring back the lapsed.


Manger Danger: Let's keep Uncle Sam out of church affairs

By David A. Lysik| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Culture
Let's keep Uncle Sam out of the nativity scene by reinforcing the wall between church and state.

Our varied beliefs can bring us together to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted; to make peace where there is strife and rebuild what has broken; to lift up those who have fallen on hard times. This is not only our call as people of faith, but our duty as citizens of America, and it will be the purpose of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships."


Use your inside voice: Why media shouting is bad for the pro-life cause

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church
The high pitch of pro-life advocacy could heed some old-fashioned parental guidance.

Voices from the debate: The church on end-of-life care

By Heather Grennan Gary| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church Culture
While Catholic moral teaching on medical treatment has been in place for hundreds of years, the last three decades have seen increased development and debate.

On Call: An excerpt from Paul Wilkes' In Due Season

By Paul Wilkes| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Life
The Body of Christ is the best medicine for body and soul, regardless of whether we are "worthy" to receive him.

Marriage of convenience: Changing wedding traditions

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Life
Catholics should find a way to welcome couples whose paths to the altar don't go straight down the center aisle.

Priests off the pedestal

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Church
A holy-card priest is not the best patron to lead 21st-century ministers into the future.

Non-parishable goods: The value of a faith community can't be crunched on a balance sheet

By Bryan Cones| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article
The value of a faith community can't be crunched on a balance sheet.

Thirteen in Miami, 52 in Cleveland, 33 in Albany, New York. No, these aren't Chrysler dealerships or Starbucks franchises closing due to the recession but parishes that will be shuttered this year in three dioceses. The diocesan announcements do, however, share something in common with their corporate counterparts: The news comes with the just about the same amount of pastoral care and sensitivity-little if any.


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