Faith
Nick’s Picks | The Pope, Fountains, Trees, and More …
Remembering Pope Francis It’s going to be a week of mourning as Catholics around the world mark today’s passing of Pope Francis. The Argentinian-born pontiff was 88 years old. Francis’s death triggers a series of rituals and procedures. His papal ring will be destroyed, and his rooms will be sealed. He will lie in state…
Feeding Tubes and Defibrillators
Let’s begin with two stories about the growing and important field of bioethics. The first is from Ryan Pferdehirt, the newly named Flanigan Chair in Bioethics at the Kansas City-based Center for Practical Bioethics. A hospital once asked him to consult on a bioethics case in which a son thought his desperately ill, hospitalized mother…
Sharpening Teeth of Acclaimed KC-Based Catholic Watchdog
A national (and international) Kansas City company has a new leader who grew up here but doesn’t live here now and may never call Kansas City home again. James Grimaldi began a few months ago as the new executive editor of The National Catholic Reporter, an award-winning, progressive newspaper voice for Catholicism. Given Grimaldi’s long…
Aging KCK Congregation Bequeaths Building to Serve Youth
Across much of the nation in recent decades, shrinking churches have confronted the painful question of whether they can afford to maintain a building for worship and other activities. Time and again the answer has been no. Sometimes that means finding other places in which to continue offering worship. But often it means either abandoning…
Truth, Religion and the Demise of Local Newspapers
When I started reporting at The Kansas City Star in late 1970, it was a regional newspaper that served not just the metro area but also east to mid-Missouri, west to central Kansas, and beyond. I was part of a staff of hundreds, and the paper’s circulation — all print then, of course — was…
Clergy Sex Abuse Survivor Reflects on His Reform Work
A 2002 series of Boston Globe articles turned a scandal about Catholic priests who sexually abuse children (and bishops who protect those priests) into a national story. The Globe, however, wasn’t the first newspaper to expose this reprehensible crime. Credit for that goes to the independent, Kansas City-based National Catholic Reporter. NCR was writing about…
KC Live Theater Provides Alternative to What People Miss in Shrinking Congregations
When the Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre presents “Freud’s Last Session” the weekend of Nov. 22, the audience will hear a debate about God’s existence by actors playing Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, and C.S. Lewis, one of the 20th Century’s most important Christian writers. But the goal won’t be to convince anyone of any religious, spiritual,…
From Monasteries To Mainstream: Some Find Healing And Purpose Through Spiritual Direction
Several years ago, the Rev. Lisa Senuta, now an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Kansas, became the rector of a church on Chicago’s ritzy North Shore. But, she says, “about 18 months in, the place was just eating my lunch. I was having panic attacks, which was very unusual for me.” So she got…
‘False Certitude’ Defines Our Religion, and Our Politics
Institutional religion has set a pattern for the sad reality of political divisions among our citizens — encouraging a false certitude about what we believe.
Dead Pets and Grief: Faith Leaders Embrace New Chaplaincy
Faith leaders are increasingly embracing the field of “pet chaplaincy” to help people deal with grief following the death of beloved pets.