FR. RON ROLHEISER, omi

Dear Fellow Pilgrim:

I greet you as someone who is looking for meaning and happiness, as we all are. I know you're sincere or you wouldn't be reading this letter.

MARIA KOZAKIEWICZ

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 11, 2012

Whenever I hear or read the story of "the widow's mite," I am amazed. That woman, destitute as she was, did not lose her ability to choose wisely and in a radical way.

The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy was the first document approved at the Second Vatican Council. Unlike the council's other major documents, it sailed through the approval process fairly readily, although a tiny but vocal minority at first raised strenuous objections.

FR. ROBERT BARRON

Many of the Catholic Church's teachings are vilified in both the high and popular cultures, but none more than its doctrines concerning marriage and sexuality. Time and again, the Church's views on sex are characterized as puritanical, life denying and hopelessly outdated – holdovers from the Bronze Age.

Re: “Science will never prove that God does exist” (WCR, Oct. 15).

Despite the growth of secularism, increased hostility toward Christianity and sinful behaviour by some Church ministers, members of the Synod of Bishops said they are optimistic about the future because of Christ’s promise of salvation.

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto took possession of his titular church Oct. 23, celebrating an evening Mass at St. Patrick’s Church in Rome.

The world’s huge technological and scientific progress hasn’t always made people freer or happier, Pope Benedict said.

Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s former butler who was found guilty of aggravated theft, was transferred from house arrest to a Vatican prison cell to begin his 18-month sentence.

Church teaching against abortion “requires absolute adherence” on the part of Catholic voters, who must “stand united” in opposition to the practice regardless of party affiliation, said Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia.