Once upon a time there was a church founded on God’s entering into human history in order to give humanity a path to eternal life and happiness with him. The Savior that God sent, his only-begotten Son, did not write a book but founded a community, a church, upon the witness and ministry of twelve apostles.

Most of us know C.S. Lewis as the author of The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters. But he was a teacher as well as a writer – and in his lectures, he often described God as a sculptor. For Lewis, the suffering in a person’s life has special meaning, echoed again and again in Scripture.

La mayoría de nosotros sabe que C.S. Lewis es el autor de Las crónicas de Narnia y Cartas del diablo a su sobrino (The Screwtape Letters). Pero él era un maestro, así como un escritor —y en sus conferencias, a menudo describía a Dios como un escultor. Para Lewis, el sufrimiento en la vida de […]

Two items are worth noting this week. Together, they’re a lesson in priorities. Here’s the first item. A doctor friend quipped recently that America is becoming a country where it’s easier to opt out of the Pledge of Allegiance than to avoid the HHS mandate. Expressions of national loyalty may be optional, she said. Paying for everybody’s birth control is not.

Dos puntos son dignos de mención esta semana. Juntos, es una lección en prioridades. Aquí está el primer punto. Un amigo médico observó recientemente que América se estáconvirtiendo en un país donde es más fácil optar por no hacer el juramento de lealtad a la bandera que evitar el mandato del departamento de salud y […]

With summer drawing to a close and a new school year just around the corner, it’s a good time to resume this column. And this week, three important matters deserve our attention and our action.

A week after arriving in Philadelphia in 2011, I got an email from a very persuasive student inviting me to speak at his school – the University of Pennsylvania. I said yes, and I’m glad I did. It was my first taste of our city’s many excellent universities and colleges, from Villanova and St. Joe’s, […]

Today’s federal district court decision striking down Pennsylvania’s Defense of Marriage Act is a mistake with long-term, negative consequences. Like many other Pennsylvanians, I hope that an appeal will be made promptly. Laws that defend the traditional definition of marriage were enacted for sound reasons-namely to defend the rights of children and contribute to the […]

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of making public Pope Francis’ theme for next year’s World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia: Love is our mission: the family fully alive. The theme was inspired by the words of the early Church Father, St. Irenaeus, who said that “the glory of God is man fully alive.” […]

In his great encyclical, Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI described the “natural family” – the permanent union of one man and one woman — as the key to real human development and the basis of all human community. Every neighborhood, city and nation begins with the family. It’s the seed from which all larger communities […]