In 2009, the British Broadcasting Corporation showed "A Short Stay in Switzerland," starring Julie Walters as Dr. Anne Turner, "who in 2006 took her own life in a Zurich clinic having developed an incurable degenerative disease," very like the one that killed her husband. Although the drama portrays the opposition of Dr.

“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man comes.” Matthew 25:13
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” Mark 13:32

In February 2004 the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York published a research study entitled The Nature and Scope of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons  in the United States 1950-2002. Since that time the researchers have been addressing a second phase of analysis and have now released the second study, The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests and Deacons in the United States 1950-2002. (Both reports are posted at http://usccb.org/mr/causes-and-context.shtml).

Among the numerous conclusions in the report are the following:

• there is no single cause for what happened; sexual abuse of minors is a human problem that all of society must always guard against;
• most cases of abuse occurred during the period 1965-85 (the most common time period was 1970-74);
  

In recent days, Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, has issued two statements in response to two aggressive moves from those advancing agendas that may seem unrelated but in fact are very much interconnected.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) had asked Catholic citizens to contact their representatives and senators in Congress on two distinct yet connected issues. Both involve reform of systems that the bishops consider broken: immigration and health care.

The decade that began on January 1, 2000, had no nickname, such as “the 90s.” Now that it’s over, some are calling those ten years “the aughts.” It somehow seems fitting that such an anxiety-producing time should either have no popular name at all or be referred to by a synonym for “zeros.”

When Christians gather together each year on December 25, they are celebrating not so much the “birthday of Jesus” as the meaning of that birth.

On a recent segment on a cable news network, a self-appointed spokesman for Catholics was articulating  his objections to Notre Dame University’s invitation to President Barack Obama to receive an honorary degree and to give the commencement address next week. Many Catholics, including most U. S.

The Ten Commandments are listed twice in the Hebrew Scriptures. The Decalogue (“The Ten Words”), the definitive summary of the Law of Moses, is so important that both Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 quote it in full.

Exactly 200 years ago, on February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin on Sinking Creek farm in Hardin County, Kentucky. The birth of a child in such humble circumstances would not usually be noted or remembered. But Abraham Lincoln’s life was so critical to this nation’s history that his birthday has long been celebrated, his life continues to be studied and revered, and his memory is cultivated and honored.