We’ve been eagerly anticipating today’s news from the Vatican today since it was announced last November that Pope Francis would be with us for the World Meeting of Families.

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision on marriage is not a surprise. The surprise will come as ordinary people begin to experience, firsthand and painfully, the impact of today’s action on everything they thought they knew about marriage, family life, our laws and our social institutions.

“I am deeply saddened by the mass murder that occurred at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina last evening. All life matters and when life is taken in such a violent way, all people of good will are devastated. The fact that nine people were shot to death as their pastor led Bible Study in their Church led to me to prayer throughout this day.

“The Holy Father’s new Laudato Si (“Praise be to you, Lord”) encyclical is a deep and complex appeal to conscience, a challenge to all of us to reexamine our stewardship of the environment and our love for the global poor.

«La nueva encíclica del Santo Padre Laudato Si (Alabado seas, Señor) es una profunda y compleja apelación a la conciencia, un reto a todos a reexaminar nuestra corresponsabilidad del medio ambiente y nuestro amor por los pobres del mundo.

The First World War lingers in the memory as humanity’s first encounter with industrialized killing on a mass scale. New weapons of the machine age obliterated forests, villages and fields – an entire way of life. This new type of war also deeply shaped the thinking of men who experienced it firsthand. Among them were J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, two of the greatest Christian writers of the last century.

In Christian thought, justice is one of the cardinal (or “hinge”) virtues. Mercy – also a virtue – is a fruit of the great theological virtue, charity. Together, mercy and justice should guide a mature Christian’s actions, choices and words.

En el pensamiento cristiano, la justicia es una de las virtudes cardinales (o «coyuntura»). La misericordia —también una virtud— es fruto de la gran virtud teológica, la caridad. Juntas, la misericordia y la justicia deben guiar las acciones, decisiones y palabras de un cristiano maduro.

I’ve followed news of the tragic Amtrak train derailment in the Port Richmond section of Philadelphia last night with deep sadness and concern.

Throughout the weeks of April, our Commonwealth, along with the rest of the country, has been focused on National Child Abuse Prevention and Awareness Month.