News - February 2013 RSS Feed

Why is it that Ash Wednesday and Lent remain relatively popular even in highly secularized times like these? It's a serious question that touches on matters deeper than might at first be supposed.

"Popes, Jesuits, and JP Morgan executives have lots on their plates each day. We might cope better with our 21st challenges by adopting a best practice from a 16th century saint."

The pope is not a figurehead; he is an apostle. He is not a manager; he is a messenger. By announcing his resignation yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI has signaled that the Church of the 21st century will not be a Church of business as usual. It will not be a church of institutional maintenance, of isolation, or of longing for the past. The Church exists to spread the Gospel. And those who have inherited that mission by their baptism must be willing to sacrifice a great deal to answer that calling.