Nemo dat quod non habet. This Latin phrase has shown up several times in the last six months. The first time occurred in a talk at our annual seminary retreat in August. I then saw it in Timothy Cardinal Dolan’s book “Priests of the Third Millennium” this fall.
Sharing advice as a fellow kidnapping survivor, Elizabeth Smart has spoken out on Jayme Closs’s courageous escape to freedom and what lies ahead. In one interview on NBC’s The Today Show, she said, “As big as this feels right now, it doesn’t have to define her life,” and added “You don’t go back to the old normal, there’s only a new normal.”
In November, a Chinese scientist named He Jankui (known to his associates as “JK”) claimed he had successfully produced the world’s first gene-edited human babies using “gene surgery.” The twin girls, he said, were born somewhere in China with a modified gene that makes them immune to infection from HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
Saturday morning I took off my wedding ring to make gingerbread cookies with the kids. Given their ages – 6, 5 and 3 years old – you can imagine there were a handful of times I wondered if the effort was worth the memory-making tradition.
Advent, Christmas, New Year’s. It is natural to assess one’s happiness this time of year.
Bishop James P. Powers 2018 Christmas message.
The consequences of human sexuality’s misuse have always had far-reaching effects, particularly on recent public display through the sex abuse crisis in the Church, the burgeoning #metoo movement and the Supreme Court nomination.
Sexual Orientation Change Efforts (SOCE) rely on professional therapy and counseling, often in a religious context, to assist those struggling with unwanted homosexual inclinations who would like to diminish their same-sex attractions and grow in their ability to abstain from same-sex behaviors.
Almost 2 million Americans are now addicted to opioids. The National Institute on Drug Abuse notes that more than 100 people die each day in the U.S. from opioid overdoses.
Once again we are all hurt, confused and angered by the recent news of Archbishop McCarrick’s abuses, the grand jury report from Pennsylvania, and the accusations against Pope Francis.
