Flashes
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Open church doors through respectful dialogue
Mission is not a one-way broadcast but an invitation to mutual learning. Parishes and ministries are called to open their doors, engage in respectful dialogue with their neighbours and discover how Christ’s message of mercy can be heard, experienced and lived together.
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The liturgical discipline of mystery
Water, oil, fire, bread and wine do not merely represent something else — within the liturgical action they do something. They engage the body, awaken memory and invite response. Over-explanation risks leaving the assembly understanding more while perceiving far less.
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Social teaching is binding doctrine
Catholic social teaching is a series of doctrinal claims that bind the Catholic faithful as much as doctrinal claims about eternal life because one is connected to the other. Our salvation is not unconnected to how we live.
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Leaders choose war; Christians must choose peace
Political self-righteousness fuels wars abroad and bigotry at home, yet faith traditions share foundational values of peace and respect. Staying silent while people suffer contradicts the gospel. Believers must act as bearers of peace, starting in their households and extending to care for the earth.
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Stars emerge at Würzburg’s Catholic Congress
Seventy-five thousand people gathered in Würzburg for Germany’s Catholic Congress, and from the opening thunderstorm Mass to the closing liturgy, moments of courage and candour cut through — a bishop calling for women in all ministries, a student challenging a cardinal, and a synodal partnership that modelled shared power.
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Questions about AI are really religious questions
Every new technology carries an implicit vision of what it means to be human. That makes the deepest questions about AI fundamentally religious ones – even if much of the developed world would prefer the Church stayed silent on matters of profit and progress.
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The theological emptiness of the Petrocchi report
Phyllis Zagano’s analysis in America and in Flashes dismantles the Petrocchi Commission’s conclusions on women’s diaconate, showing they rest on no historical, theological, or anthropological documentation.
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Just war theory – more like confession than permission
Just war theory was always reluctant permission, not a green light. Resorting to military force is never a display of international strength, but an open admission of bankruptcy. By prioritizing weapons modern states confess that the essential, slower work of human connection was abandoned far too soon.
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Trump’s attacks elevate Pope Leo
Donald Trump’s repeated derogatory remarks about Pope Leo have paradoxically transformed the pontiff from a figure of mild curiosity into a confirmed world leader. His steady appeals to the just war tradition now command mainstream media attention rather than being buried in back pages.
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False news and discord demand urgent response
Global frustration with misinformation and the collapse of respectful conversation demand more than secular remedies. The World Day of Communications challenges the Church to model the unity it preaches by first healing its own internal Babel.
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