‘Iraqi Freedom’ This year marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the invasion and occupation of Iraq by a large international “Coalition of the Willing” led by the United States and the United Kingdom. The stated goal was to topple Saddam Hussein, in power since 1979, who was accused of hiding weapons of mass destruction and protecting and financing terrorist groups, particularly al Qaeda.[1] The operation, dubbed “Iraqi Freedom,” was part of the so-called “Global War on Terrorism” waged...
In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, 2023, about a thousand militants from Hamas and other armed militias broke through the barriers between the Gaza Strip and Israel, pouring into Israeli territory, sowing terror and wreaking havoc. About 1,400 people were killed, thousands more wounded and some 220 Israeli soldiers and civilians kidnapped. The planning, implementation and ferocity of the attack caught Israel by surprise, not only because Israeli intelligence (as well as technologically advanced Western intelligence) had not...
In a 2016 interview with La Croix, Pope Francis said he received an invitation from then-President François Hollande and the Bishops’ Conference itself to visit France. That was where he expressed a desire to travel to Marseille, “which represents an open door to the world.”[1] At 2:30 p.m. on Friday, September 22, 2023, a papal flight carrying the pope, members of his retinue and accredited journalists took off for Marseille International Airport. They landed at 4:15 p.m. and were greeted...
A look at history shows us that, for many centuries, Christianity accepted slavery as a social and economic reality proper to most societies. Christian thought accepted slavery under certain circumstances, and when the Atlantic slave trade developed, the effort of theologians and jurists was to delimit the occasions involving legitimate loss of freedom. This was the case in the 16th century with thinkers such as Luis de Molina and Tomás de Mercado. As Pope Francis writes, morality and law determined...
The word “spirituality” refers to something in the world of experience. It is the life of the Spirit in us (cf. Gal 5:25). But it is something that is not limited to mere personal experience: it also includes reflection on what is experienced. Spirituality, then, is also attentive knowledge of what happens in that life of the Spirit in us. It is “the science of the paths” through which God works in us, and it is also “the science of...
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Marcel, perhaps the most important philosophical exponent of contemporary Christian existentialism. Although employed for many years in various universities, where he taught philosophy, he nevertheless devoted much of his energies and interests to the fields of literature and theater. Life Gabriel Marcel was born in Paris on December 7, 1889. His thought was strongly influenced by authors belonging to very different philosophical schools, such as Léon Brunschvicg, Henri Bergson,...
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