For me, Communion is holy and very real, a connection to God and to God’s people. As a hospital chaplain, though, my job is to support the spirituality of patients and families right where they are.
Physician-assisted suicide can seem like an easy fix to a health care system reluctant to deal with end-of-life issues. But there are other options, including hospice care, that patients deserve to know about.
Is hell empty? Pope Francis hopes so. Among the thinkers of the past century who speculated it could be so was Hans Urs von Balthasar, a favorite of the past two popes and a prominent theologian of his time.