Christians through the ages have sought to take the example and words of Jesus to heart and to live them in social settings very different from ancient Palestine. Catholic social teaching is an offspring of this effort.
Pope Francis has ignited a useful and necessary conversation about our responsibilities to the poorest of the poor — those who some may be tempted to write out of the script of history as hopeless cases.
We need to pray that our elected federal officials will find the courage in this new year of Our Lord, 2014, to finally pass real immigration reform.
Imagine someone appealing to Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, to justify the activities of gangs in Los Angeles.
Would it not be wonderful to have an encyclopedia of Catholic social thought?
Discussing drug legalization with libertarians, as I did recently, can be a frustrating experience.
A sentence in the French newspaper Le Monde recently caught my eye: Il y aura toujours des talibans de l'austérité, there will always be the Talibans of austerity.
Mother Teresa was once asked how she could go on, day after day, year after year, caring for the sick and dying and poor and offering them so much comfort.
Paul Ryan, a devout Catholic, has claimed the social doctrine of the Church as the principal inspiration for his policies.