Articles

Toward a Theology of Infertility: The Trinity in Richard of St. Victor

Richard of St. Victor explores an understanding of the Trinity based on an understanding of the nature of interpersonal love ... in which God is viewed as a community of persons ... he conceives of the Holy Spirit ... as a third person: the … [Read more...]

Communion, Community, and Communication

The Gospel summons us to authentic human development in communion, community, and communication under the sovereignty of God’s love. Our Christian conversion is both an event and a lifelong process of ongoing response to the grace and call o … [Read more...]

Checking the Calendar

(The Ephiphany) celebrates the end of man’s being held captive by the natural elements.  We are not fated but free. None of us is pre-determined, but now made children of God by the humanity of his only divine Son.     God the Father (righ … [Read more...]

Questions Answered

January 2014

What do you say to a non-Catholic man who received questionable advice from a priest about his marriage to a Catholic woman, and now wants to become Catholic as well? How engaged should the priest be in the religious education of the p … [Read more...]

Still Needing Your Help to Spread the “Good News”

The good news is that we are currently reaching anywhere from 10,000 to 16,000 readers around the world in any given week. Please consider a donation towards keeping HPR online in 2014! "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations" by Harry … [Read more...]

Looking Back at “Humani Generis”

The 1950 encyclical Humani Generis, “Concerning Some False Opinions Threatening to Undermine the Foundations of Catholic Doctrine,” should be understood in the context of the pontifical effort to reform Catholic intellectual life. Pope Pi … [Read more...]

Vanishing Catholics

According to recent demographic surveys, it seems there are presently 30 million people in the U.S. who identify themselves as “former Catholics.” That figure is both surprising, and, for Catholics, disheartening.   Over the past 50 years … [Read more...]

Ways to Celebrate Humanae Vitae at 45—and Beyond!

This article began as a response to priests’ and deacons’ requests for a model homily on a moral means of family planning. On July 25, 2013, the Church marked the 45th anniversary of the promulgation of the encyclical Humanae Vitae. Over … [Read more...]

Vibrant Isn’t about Busy: Organizing Parish Life for Discipleship

Our parishes are busy. Many seem to be vibrant with activity. Yet activity alone is no guarantee that a parish contains discipling communities ... where relationships that allow for apprenticeship in the Christian life abound ... … [Read more...]

Glory to God in the Highest!

And Peace to His People on Earth! Adoration of the Shepherds by Bartoleme Esteban Murillo Gospel  Reading December 25, 2013, Midnight Mass Lk 2:8-14 ...Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the … [Read more...]

Time Magazine Nominated Pope Francis as “Person of the Year”

A Statement from the Society of Jesus on Time Magazine’s Selection of Pope Francis as Person of the Year Head of U.S. Jesuit Order Congratulates Pope on Honor December 11, 2013 — Pope Francis has been named 2013’s “Person of the Year, … [Read more...]

Understanding Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, “Evangelii Gaudium”

Evangelii Gaudium is ostensibly the Pope’s response to the Synod last October ... but it is much more than a simple reporting on what happened there.  It is the outlining of the key themes Pope Francis hopes will constitute his po … [Read more...]

On “Whose God Is God?”

The problem is not with God. The problem is already located in the classical Garden in Genesis, the question of man preferring his own world to that more noble world that God has destined him for, and in which, being the kind of being he … [Read more...]

Jesus’ Infancy through the Eyes of Benedict XVI

As Benedict’s entire Jesus of Nazareth trilogy masterfully illustrates, the answer lies in carefully balanced exegesis that takes the historicity of the Gospels seriously, while also attending to the particularities of their unique literary … [Read more...]