Learning to be Quick to Listen

Religious liberty is "the most fundamental freedom in society" and it is at "the very core of the human condition," attorney and scholar Joseph Weiler told an audience at The Catholic University of America in Washington. He gave a lecture at a ceremony where he was presented an honorary doctorate of theology by the university. In attendance were John Garvey, the university's president, and several members of its academic faculty at the March 19 event hosted by the School of Theology and Religious Studies. In honoring Weiler, the university cited his lifelong contributions to the cause of religious liberty, scholarship on Judeo-Christian morality in European public life, and the continued development of Catholic-Jewish relations in the Western world. Weiler, born in 1951 in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the Joseph Straus professor of law at New York University. He also is the European Union Jean Monnet chaired professor, co-director of the Jean Monnet Center for...

Catholic advocates are pressing Congress to make the needs of poor and vulnerable people a priority as legislators hammer out a federal spending plan for 2016. The advocates told Catholic News Service they want to prevent trillions of dollars in social services spending from disappearing over the next decade as Congress seeks to balance the federal budget and reduce the nation's growing debt. In meetings with individual members of Congress, they have stressed that the needs of hungry, homeless and unemployed people must be the country's highest priority. "There are millions of people at stake in these decisions," said Brian Corbin, senior vice president for social policy at Catholic Charities USA, which has joined with Catholic Relief Services and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in meetings on Capitol Hill. "They all have a name and a face and based on our principle of human dignity, that name and that face and that family, those really are important to m...

Today as we celebrate the feast day of the great St. Joseph, I hope you are not just worrying about getting your Italian cookies. St. Joseph is such a powerful example to us mainstream Catholics and Christians as well. His obedience to God's requests brought the world Jesus Christ. His protection of the Virgin Mary and Jesus caused such a revolution that we are still contemplating the consequences. St. Joseph was a terrific husband and father and now is a great time to look to him for guidance. Look at his conversation with God's messenger in the Bible. Look at how he stood by his commitment to our Mother Mary when there was immense pressure to walk away. Look how he moved his family quickly to safety every time the leaders of the time changed their minds. Look at his influence on Jesus. Now more than ever, when many men are turning their backs on their own children, Joseph is the perfect example of what a real man does. His devotion and allegiance to Mary and Jesus is really q...

Creators of the luxury Italian fashion brand Dolce & Gabbana sparked global controversy over the weekend after coming out in defense of marriage, saying that children have the right to a mother and a father. “The family is not a fad,” said co-founder of the fashion empire, Stefano Gabbana, in an interview with the Italian Magazine Panorama. “In it there is a supernatural sense of belonging.” Sharing this view with his business and former romantic partner, Domenico Dolce told the magazine: “We didn't invent the family ourselves.” Dolce and Gabbana, who are openly gay, went on to say children have the right to be raised by a mother and a father, and condemned the use of artificial means of conception, such as In-vitro fertilization. The Italian-born fashion duo also spoke out against the use of surrogate mothers by gay couples who are seeking to have a child, referring to practice as “wombs for rent.” Dolce referred to those conceived through artificial means as “chemical ch...

You have probably heard about their work with charitable organizations and the international councils that they've founded across the globe. You may have benefited from their life insurance program, or know someone who belongs to the fraternal organization. But this year, they have been recognized as one of the world's most ethical companies for the second consecutive year. The Knights of Columbus have been honored by the Ethisphere Institute as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company, acknowledged for their exceptional performance in business transparency, ethics, and sustainability. "Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at Knights of Columbus for this extraordinary achievement," Timothy Erblich, CEO of Ethisphere, stated March 9. Ethisphere is a leading global herald for ethical business practices, known for recognizing organizations that advance ethical conduct and transparency ...

Little white crosses scattered before a statue of the Holy Family make up a poignant memorial called the Cemetery for Aborted Children in South Korea. Home to about 15 million Christians, South Korea suffers the highest rate of abortion in the world. During his trip to the country last August, Pope Francis visited the site in part to clear up the media's "misunderstanding of his social agenda," said Vatican journalist and Boston Globe associate editor John L. Allen Jr. Some media outlets had accused the pope of downplaying the Catholic Church's opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage to gain secular popularity. According to Allen, the pope's agenda is none other than mercy -- a value he hopes will permeate church leadership at every level. In a spirited talk before the National Association of Catholic Chaplains March 9, Allen described the visit as one of many examples of the pope's belief that "mercy" and "service" should define churc...

Two-month-old Gabriel Caicedo is one of 78 children who have been saved by a new medical protocol being used to reverse the effects of the RU-486 abortion regimen in its early stages. The baby is "the light of our life," said his father, Chris Caicedo. He and Gabriel's mother, Andrea Minichini, told their story at a Feb. 23 news conference held by the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life to call attention to a RU-486 reversal kit available to physicians. The RU-486 medical abortion procedure is a two-day regimen used to terminate early pregnancies by blocking the hormone progesterone needed to sustain a pregnancy. It involves two types of medication -- RU-486 itself, which is mifepristone, and a prostaglandin, known as misoprostol, that stimulates uterine contractions, and taken two days later to expel the fetus. At the news conference, association officials and Father Pavone said the reversal kits wo...

Don't use peer pressure, greed or laziness as an excuse to chase after false gods and become a wildly successful failure, Pope Francis said. Slow down, reflect and choose the path that takes you closer to God and your loved ones, he said during a recent morning Mass in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives. One mistake in life, he said, is "always seeking one's own success, one's own benefit without thinking about the Lord, without thinking about one's family," he said. Vatican Radio and L'Osservatore Romano released excerpts from his homily, which examined the day's first reading from Deuteronomy, in which Moses sets before the people "life and prosperity, death and doom," and encourages them to choose life by following the Lord. Christians are still faced with the same difficult choice every day, the pope said, "to choose between God and the other gods -- those that have no power to give us anything, just tiny little ...