casual theology

I’ve got a confession to make. I love to watch makeover shows. Specifically, I love watching Restaurant Impossible, Hotel Impossible, and Kitchen Nightmares. All of these shows have the same basic premise, a troubled business calls for help, an expert comes in to save the day by renovating the décor (which almost always involves some serious cleaning), working with the owners and staff, implementing changes to workflows and practices. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. The success or failure depends on how well the owners follow the expert’s advice. As Catholics we experience our own version of a spiritual makeover, a kind of Redemption Impossible, when we encounter the Gospel. We’ve messed up. Through sin and bad choices we’ve allowed our souls to fall into disrepair. In our hour of need we call out to God to save us. We meet our Savior in the confessional. He hears our cry and pours out his grace upon us. Not content with merely fixing what’s broken, he redeems the mess...

I usually start my day by checking various news websites. I often say I just want to know “if anything blew up overnight.” This morning my attention was drawn to several headlines about Pope Francis and the Church under a picture of the pope:   "Pope: You don't have to believe in God to get to heaven..." "Catholic priests may be allowed to marry amid Papal changes..." I immediately thought, “here we go again”, some statement by the pope has been taken out of context by a reporter who likely couldn’t pass a first grade catechism class. I was not disappointed. There were two “big” stories about the Church. The first alleged that Pope Francis was declaring that atheists could go to heaven without believing in God and the second focused on comments made by the incoming Vatican Secretary of State, Archbishop Pietro Parolin, on the topic of celibacy. Let's take a closer loo k...   Atheists and Agnostics Just Need to Be Good People   The ...