St. Ignatius of Loyola describes the task assigned to those who preach and receive the Spiritual Exercises thus: “To seek and to find the divine will in the orientation of your life for the sake of the salvation of your soul.”[1] After disposing yourself to desire the purification of your heart, in doing the exercises you must fight to realize this supreme aim. This is the goal of the Christian life itself. What does it mean to seek and to...
On July 9, 2011, six months after the referendum that established its independence from Sudan, and following several decades of violent conflict that sowed death and displacement and tore the fabric of its society, the Republic of South Sudan became the 54th country of the African continent, a member of the African Union, and the 49th country in sub-Saharan Africa. A few days later it officially joined the United Nations as its 193rd member state. However, multiple crises caused by...
Four hundred kilometers east of Moscow lies one of the most beautiful and wealthiest cities of Russia: Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, the largest Muslim enclave in the Russian Federation. Currently, a high-speed train line between Moscow and Kazan is under construction, the second planned after the one connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg, demonstrating the symbolic importance of Kazan and Tatarstan for the region. These two high-speed rail lines offer a modern embodiment of the old symbol...
When he met with Jesuits during his recent journeys to Colombia and then Myanmar and Bangladesh,[1] Pope Francis referred to St. Peter Claver in a way that invites a new reading of the life of this saint.[2] The expression used by the pope was charism, but he did not so much speak of the charism of Claver, but rather the pope presented the very person of Claver as a charism. Claver made himself the “slave of the slaves,” becoming for...
“God himself is judge!” (Ps 50:6). This exclamation by the psalmist expresses so much about the common belief of the Jews at the time of Christ. There is certainly a judge who will judge both people and nations. “The wicked man reviles the Lord, saying to himself, ‘You will not ask for an account’” (cf. Ps 10:13). But on these words, Rabbi Aqiba comments, “There is a judgment and there is a judge.”[1] What might seem to be a threat...
Reading newspapers or surfing the web in the days after a recent intervention by Pope Francis on end-of-life issues, one would have found it difficult to get a clear idea of the actual content of his message. The various headlines, often on the front page, spanned a wide range from “Living Will, the Change of Francis”[1] to “Euthanasia, No Change by the Pope”[2] with many more formulations in between. Readers who went beyond the headlines would certainly have been able...
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