August 24, 2020
Click on video above: Pastor's Corner - August 24, 2020
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America Media Interviews Vice President Biden: The Full Interview
In this exclusive interview with Father Matt Malone, S.J., editor in chief of America, Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. discusses his thoughts on Pope Francis, as well as his Catholic faith, his upbringing, his public life and private sorrow, and his thinking about a possible presidential campaign. The interview was conducted on September 17, 2015 in Washington, D.C. Mr. Biden refers in the full interview, below, to Father Malone’s published account of the death of his brother in an automobile accident in 1984. That story is available from America’s archives at: https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2005/03/07/father-mercies

America's press release with significant quotes from the video is available at:

In his new book The Next Pope, George Weigel seeks to create a profile of the next pope. The profile he establishes can be easily summarized: “not Pope Francis.” The book is a hardly subtle critique of the present bishop of Rome. In a brief 133 pages I counted at least 62 times when he used the verb “must” in regard to what the next pope should do. READ MORE

“Pope Francis has damaged my faith,” she told me. I held my tongue, remembering my futile past attempts to respond to her antipathy toward our pope.“I told Father today, and he says Pope Francis has hurt his faith, too,” she added. A final dig.

Last December, my mom was only a few days from the end of her final illness. Our pastor had seen her that morning and heard her confession. It was the last time we ever discussed faith or religion. READ MORE
by Daniel P. Horan

One of the best definitions of heresy I've heard over the years describes it as the experience of mistaking part of the truth for the whole truth in a matter of faith or doctrine. This description generously reveals what is so appealing about heresies and why so many Christians inevitably fall for them. Heresies are always partly correct, but in the absence of the necessary nuance and complexity that Christian theology requires, a heretic unwittingly fails to accept the totality of the orthodox position. READ MORE
by John Gehring

When John F. Kennedy ran for president in 1960, his Catholic faith posed such a liability that he delivered a major speech in Houston intended to reassure an audience of anxious Protestant ministers that he would never take marching orders from the Vatican. READ MORE
Spiritual Growth Opportunities
Interested in Ignatian Spirituality?

Loyola University Maryland Office of Mission Integration will hold a September 10, 2020,
6 PM ZOOM conference on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. If you are interested in learning more about the full Exercises in Everyday Life (which run from September through April) please contact Sue Cesare (sue-cesare@dexterco.com, 410-493-5908), and she will send you an Invitation to the Zoom Conference.

For more information, contact: sue-cesare@dexterco.com.
IFTJ REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!
Will you join us?

From October 19th to 26th, virtually join thousands of passionate individuals from across the country and beyond to learn, reflect, pray, connect, and advocate in the context of social justice and solidarity at the 2020 Ignatian Family Teach-In for Justice. For more information, click here.
In the Media

Religious Identity and the 2020 Presidential Election

The process of analyzing and understanding presidential election dynamics often leads us to look at the American electorate not as a whole, but by segments. Party identification is the most frequently used way to sort voters, but other variables are also meaningfully related to political behavior and help explain how and why people vote.

Of particular interest this election cycle is the religious identity of voters, a factor that appears, at least to me, more important than it has been in recent presidential elections. This is in part because Joe Biden is only the fourth major-party Catholic presidential nominee in U.S. history and in part because Donald Trump continues to make the courting of evangelical voters a major priority of his campaign. Both the Biden and Trump campaigns have appointed coordinators to reach out to faith communities. READ MORE
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