Raymond J. de Souza

The Holy See’s official “Response” to the Cloyne Report, released in Rome on September 3, 2011, marks a significant development in the sexual abuse crisis in Ireland. It has significance beyond Ireland, for the summer of 2011 has brought not just the latest iteration of Irish investigatory commissions, but a serious dispute about the role of the Catholic Church in Irish life. The Response, at some 11,000 words, is comprehensive, even tedious in its detail, and adopts an understated and humble tone… . Continue Reading »

We come today to pray for a righteous man, the Honorable Shahbaz Bhatti, who died early, at age 42. The words of the Book of Wisdom comfort us: “Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long years.” He was “pleasing to the Lord [who] took him quickly from the midst of wickedness.” … Continue Reading »

The homily from the Mass for the twentieth anniversary of the reception into the Catholic Church of Richard John Neuhaus: The genealogy of Jesus Christ is something of a homiletic challenge. But Saint Matthew recorded it, and so the Church presents it to us, though not often. We find it, appropriately enough, on this feast of the nativity of Our Lady, and also as the gospel for the vigil Mass of the Nativity of the Lord… . Continue Reading »

The Future Church: How Ten Trends Are Revolutionizing The Catholic Church by John L. Allen Jr. Doubleday, 480 pages, $28 About three hundred pages into his comprehensive analysis of the Catholic present and likely future, John Allen sketches a scene that summarizes his book: “Ironically, . . . . Continue Reading »

Cardinal Ratzinger said in his funeral homily for John Paul the Great: “This is not the time to speak of the specific content of this rich pontificate.” Likewise, this is not the time to speak about the specific content of the rich literary life and public achievements of Fr. Richard John . . . . Continue Reading »

The news two weeks ago concerning Fr. Marcial Maciel was devastating to members of the Legion of Christ and Regnum Christi; it was heartbreaking to see my friends on television, clearly distraught at the realization that their founder and spiritual father was guilty of serious crimes.The news shook . . . . Continue Reading »

For Canada’s social conservatives, the recent federal election offered cause for encouragement, cause for anxiety, and cause for alarm. That one election could produce such unsettled and unsettling results is evidence of what a tumultuous year it has been in Canadian politics. Since 1993, the . . . . Continue Reading »

In 2003, the chief appellate court of the province of Ontario unanimously ruled that the common law definition of marriage in force in Canada (“one man and one woman”) was unconstitutional, as it violated the equality guarantees of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms (an amendment to the . . . . Continue Reading »

Twenty-five years as pope is no small thing. When John Paul II celebrates his papal jubilee this October 16, he will be only the third pope in history to have done so. So rare is the milestone that when Pius IX (1846-1878) reached it in 1871 his image was placed over the famous bronze statue of St. . . . . Continue Reading »

It was perhaps the most unusual statement in a political year full of surprises. Stockwell Day, new leader of a new conservative political party, the Canadian Alliance, was under attack for his evangelical Christian faith, and sought relief from a hostile press corps by attempting a reductio ad . . . . Continue Reading »