Living Faith

The Happy Priest: Jesus Gives Meaning to Human Suffering

By Fr. James Farfaglia • Catholic Online • 2/5/2012

Jesus does not take away human suffering; rather he transforms it and gives it new meaning. In his book Compassion, Henri Nouwen, no stranger to sorrow and pain, expresses this idea with these words: "The mystery of God's love is not that our pain is taken away, but that God first ...

Catholic Social Doctrine: The Right to Work and the Dignity of the Human Person

By Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. • Catholic Online • 2/5/2012

The Church honors human work, and sees it as a fundamental good of man. She recognizes it as both a duty and a right. The reason work is both a duty and a right stems from two facts. First, the fact that work is necessary. Second, the fact that work affirms the dignity of the human ...

Being Still,leisure, is a part of being human

Catholic Social Doctrine: Understanding the Holiness of Leisure

By Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. • Catholic Online • 2/2/2012

It is in the hopes of recapturing this entire lost world that the Church urges that "Christians, in respect of religious freedom and of the common good of all, should seek to have Sundays and the Church's Holy Days recognized as legal holidays." But legality alone will not transform our ...

Recovery of Leisure: Regaining the Mind and Redeeming the Time

By Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. • Catholic Online • 2/1/2012

We must be like Mary if we are to regain our mind and if we are to redeem the time. This is at the heart of the Gospel: we must be still-at leisure, at rest-and then, and only then, shall we know God. And God is the purpose, the end, of everything, including work and rest. In the ...

'This is the government interfering in the workings of the church,' Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says.

Catholic churches denounce requirement to include birth control in health coverage

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 1/31/2012

Catholic churches across the nation have denounced a new federal rule that requires faith-based employers to include birth control coupled with other reproductive services in their health care coverage. Several priests took the rare step of reading letters from the pulpit urging ...

Catholic Social Teaching: The Recovery of Leisure and the Concept of Total Work

By Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. • Catholic Online • 1/31/2012

The Compendium teaches that, as the untiring God rested after creating the world, so men and women who are created in His image (but who tire) must rest. For this reason, the Compendium insists that men and women are to structure their lives to assure that they "enjoy sufficient rest and free ...

The prayer mural found at Cranston High School West in Rhode Island has since been covered with a tarp when a student complained that it violated the separation of church and state.

Atheist teen stands behind her position after school prayer banner taken down

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM) • Catholic Online • 1/30/2012

A prayer banner at Cranston High School West in Rhode Island, part of the school since 1963, has been covered after a teenage student there complained that it violated the separation of church and state. Student Jessica Ahlquist is standing her ground, since 2010, she's been receiving online ...

The Happy Priest: Spiritual Warfare and the Healing Power of Jesus Christ

By Fr. James Farfaglia • Catholic Online • 1/30/2012

Our personal struggle with Satan and with evil is very real indeed. Jesus will bring about profound healing in our lives if we turn to him. Only by putting on God's armor will we be able to persevere.And what is God's armor for you? We have to develop a very serious spiritual life ...

Relationship between Labor and Capital and the Problem of Alienation

By Andrew M. Greenwell, Esq. • Catholic Online • 1/28/2012

It is this blending of the principles of the priority of human work over capital and the principle of the complementarity of labor and capital which is the heart of the recipe of the social doctrine of the Church as it pertains to the relationship between labor and capital. In negotiating the ...

Catholic Social teaching: Dignity of Work - Christ Working for Christ

By Andrew M. Greenwell,Esq. • Catholic Online • 1/25/2012

The Church therefore sees human work from three dimensions: the objective, the subjective, and the social. The first looks first at the work and not necessarily the person doing the work. The second looks at the person doing the work and not necessarily the work done. The third ...