Steven P. Millies

Our desire to direct this synod toward concrete results or scoff when no concrete results emerge shuts the windows and doors of the house so the Spirit cannot rush in, writes Steven P. Millies. 

"Nine years into the madness of Donald Trump, it may be time to admit: The trouble is us," writes Steven P. Millies.

No matter who wins the U.S. presidential election, writes Steven P. Millies, when the Biden administration ends, a post-Catholic era of American life opens.

Although the Democrats' Chicago convention was full of genuine joy, "Voters will need more," writes Steven P. Millies. "They will need a good, clear idea about Kamala Harris' vision long before Nov. 5."

We Catholics have come to prize a little too much being outsiders set against the culture and the world. Quite often, Catholics seem crouched defensively as though the church were under constant attack.

The committee not only has papered investment firms with document preservation letters, but they also have set their sights on the Sisters of Saint Dominic of Caldwell, Mercy Investment Services, Christian Brothers Investment Services and Loyola Marymount University. These Catholic ministries and religious communities operate under the authoritative teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, which tell us, "Every economic activity making use of natural resources must … also be concerned with safeguarding the environment."

Clergy are only one voice among many with the power to define what is "Catholic." Yet over the last 20 years, the Catholic brand has been appropriated in a worrying way by organizations with uncertain ties to the structure of the church.

"It seems very much as though the U.S. bishops reject the position that won the election for John Kennedy and credibility for Catholics in U.S. politics," writes Steven P. Millies. 

The U.S. bishops' documents on religious liberty "never grapple with the important differences between our theology and the constitutional tradition," writes Steven P. Millies. 

Our national political community is suffering. So is our church. So are universities. They suffer in different ways, but for the same reasons. There is no simple answer to this problem, but there is a good beginning.

Bishops who hold advance degrees in theology can and should raise theological questions, without being called a heretic, argues theologian Steven Millies.

Rather than work to make abortion illegal, Catholics should try to sway public opinion. But the way we have fought abortion has undermined our credibility to speak for the common good.

In Bernardin, Catholics had a leader who anticipated the style and ministry of Pope Francis in his openness to dialogue and his efforts to engage the world in constructive conversations. But Bernardin’s final years also anticipated the sort of opposition Francis has faced.

Commentary: The hook on which this story hangs is a long-discredited link between sexual abuse and homosexuality.

Commentary: I hope everyone will come back to the pews, eventually. But I have a much more important hope too. I hope that we will not forget our pandemic experience, and we will bring a new set of expectations to parish life.

Commentary: If we are consistent in our defense of human life, we cannot be a comfortable Democrat or Republican. The consistent ethic embraces many complex issues in a slow-moving political system where Catholics do not have the last word.

Commentary: In this article, originally published on U.S. Catholic and then removed without notice, Stephen P. Millies writes that the U.S. bishops have gone so far down this transactional road with the Republican Party, that we have to ask whether the bishops possess the moral credibility to function as religious leaders.