Morning Briefing

Join NCR's stable of publications for the Lent and, when appropriate, the Easter season:

  • Start your day inspired with daily Scripture reflections. Join NCR's sister publication, Celebration, for Daily Bread, a series of short reflections written by four authors who meet regularly to share the readings.
  • Or reflect on Pencil Preaching by Pat Marrin. Every morning, Pat breaks open the Word with a pencil sketch and a short meditation.
  • Or commentaries from NCR and Global Sisters Report: Lent: missing pieces, finding fullness by Sr. Colleen Gibson, a Sister of St. Joseph of Philadelphia.

We hope we can enhance your prayer and reflection over these holy days using Sunday commentaries, articles, art and graphics from Celebration as well as from our sister publication, Global Sisters Report. Visit all the resources on the Celebration page

The headline read: "Surprising response to the Parkland [the Florida high school] massacre." Chants of "No more guns!" erupt at a Florida vigil for the victims of the Parkland massacre. Why is that a surprise? After Florida, is the tide finally turning on gun control? Isn't that what was said after Sandy Hook?

This is what NCR had to say one year after the Sandy Hook shootings: The year since Sandy Hook has not been squandered.

How to stand up to the Kremlin: In this article from the January/February issue of Foreign Affairs, former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden and Atlantic Council Nonresident Senior Fellow Michael Carpenter discuss ways the American citizenry can mobilize to defend democratic institutions against foreign influence.

The Vatican is preparing for an October Synod of Bishops. "The next Synod of Bishops wants to be, in fact, not only a synod 'on' young people but 'for' young people, and also not a synod 'of' young people but 'with' young people," says Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, who heads the Vatican’s synod office.

Let's hope the synod pays attention to research like this: Study asks: Why are young Catholics going, going, gone?

NCR's sister publication, Global Sisters Report, published this week a very important article about trends in religious life. If you haven't read it, you should: Collaborative governance model helps congregations carry on with limited resources. Please, share this with your peers.

From Czestochowa and Warsaw, Jonathan Luxmoore reports that Poland's Catholic Church takes on its critics.

Luxmoore has been covering Eastern Europe and the former Soviet bloc for NCR for years. Here's list of Luxmoore's most recent reporting for NCR.

Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich was in England last week to deliver an address. Dan Hitchens, deputy editor of the Catholic Herald, caught up with the cardinal and filed this report: The cardinal believes reception of Communion depends on "conscience." Does his reasoning add up?

Did you see this very fine report by Maria Benevento earlier this week? It's a good overview of Catholic teaching on migration: Immigration reform is not just about 'Dreamers,' advocates say.

On immigration issues, however, some say we Catholics have drunk the Kool-Aid: Catholic Bishops Stumble on the Banana Peel of DACA Policy.

In the cities of Glasgow, Liverpool and London, Christian peacemakers celebrated Ash Wednesday with public invitations to repentance and change with a special focus on turning away from current government policies on nuclear war preparations: Ash Wednesday witness to nuclear war preparations.

Over at Commonweal, Michael C. Desch and Gerard F. Powers discuss the question: No More Nukes?

Under pressure from the Catholic Church and teachers group, an effort to extend Colorado’s statute of limitations for failure to report child abuse fails.

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