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  I have the privilege of composing this reflection while residing in Tanzania. A colleague and I are working on a series of projects for the Archdiocese of Mwanza, which is on the shore of Lake Victoria, in the north-central part of the country. Like many Africans,... Read More →

  This is my second, and last, Pastoral Reflection that centers on a declaration for life. Promise. In 1988, a small group of United Methodist pastors began discussing the possibility of writing a declaration addressed to The United Methodist Church on life and abortion. In... Read More →

Love must be learned. Which is why there is no better example of love in our world than that of mothers, who both love and learn to love by giving themselves to another—often at great cost. It is also why pro-choice culture is so deeply destructive. For a culture that is all... Read More →

  It’s hard to know what to do with a film that begins with the end of the universe. The Life of Chuck places us in a generic urban/suburban world where normal things are starting to unravel. In a traffic snarl, a schoolteacher (Marty) sees a billboard with the picture of an... Read More →

  Robert Cardinal Sarah wrote a wonderful book, The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise, in which he reminds us that we need to escape from the tyranny of endless distractions produced by constant sound. We must learn how to place ourselves silently before... Read More →

  This essay first appeared in Pins in the Liberal Balloon, a 1990 collection of essays from Fr. Canavan. ____________________________________________________________________________ The face of the earth has changed over the centuries and is changing more radically in the... Read More →

(This is a reprint from July 8, 2024) Last week, we celebrated the 248th anniversary of our nation’s Declaration of Independence, a bold act of defiance that ultimately, after eight long years of revolutionary war, resulted in Great Britain’s recognition of the sovereignty of the... Read More →

   This past Tuesday marked the third anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the 2022 Supreme Court decision revoking the “constitutional right” to abortion invented by Roe v. Wade. For those of us who want to see unborn children protected by law, Dobbs was a great... Read More →

    Let’s be honest. Congregations, as well as their pastors and priests, are hesitant, even unwilling, to address abortion either publicly or from the pulpit. We are afraid that we might make somebody in the local church mad. Nevertheless, faithful ministry involves... Read More →

    The room is not quite big enough for everyone who has come. In her reclining chair, the 95-year-old woman takes it all in, with smiles. Her hearing is spotty, her eyesight rather darkened, and her walker ever close to hand. But she is full of delight, for gathered around... Read More →