CrossCurrents: A Catholic Reflects on Faith in Our Times

CrossCurrents is a weekly subscription service for parish websites
by Bernard F. McSwain, Ph.D.

A lifelong layperson, Bernie Swain has devoted more than 35 years to adult spiritual formation in dioceses in the US, Canada, and France. Since 1991 he has had a private practice as trainer, teacher, and consultant to leaders in parishes and other religious organizations.
PLEASE NOTE: Dr. Swain’s opinions do not represent the views of this parish or any other official body.


Issue #303 - Creating Wisdom Communities


Last week I argued that our parishes need to offer something different if they want to reach and hold the next generation. I noted that Vatican Council II (1962-1965) foresaw future generations needing the wisdom to steer our growing power toward good ends rather than violence, destruction, and injustice (think: nuclear energy vs. nuclear weapons)--and it proposed to renew Catholicism as a major source of such wisdom. To me, Vatican II’s vision is a perfect remedy for what ails parish life today...


Issue #299 - The Culture Clash Within Our Walls


How long, O Lord? It is a perfectly natural question: eight years after scandal exploded in Boston, American Catholics are naturally wondering when and how this crisis will pass. But things keep getting worse. What Vatican officials once minimized as "an American problem" is rapidly going global. And now the New York Times has published a Watergate-style investigative report revealing a secret Vatican meeting...


Issue #298 - Connections and Journeys


Sometimes you feel at home in the most unexpected places. That's what happened to me last weekend. For more than 30 years my wife and I have been liturgical nomads, trekking from church to church in search of life-giving liturgy and family-supporting community...


Issue #296 - Some Good News About Scandal


Now that Benedict XVI is sending Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley to manage the sex scandal in Ireland, it is clear that those dismissing this problem as a media invention or minimizing it as an “American problem” were wrong all along . But even as the scandal widens to a global scale, some good news is emerging...


Issue #286 - So Many Different Differences

Issue #285 - Our Worship Experiences

Issue #284 - Cause or Coincidence?

Issue #283 - Noisy Catholicism?

Issue #281 - Losing Faith

Issue #280 - Renewal Without Revolution?

Issue #278 - Leading Us Astray

Issue #277 - Obama's Catholic Case for Peace

Issue #276 - The Long and Winding Road

Issue #274 - Like the Air We Breathe

Issue #273 - A Second Reformation?

Issue #272 - Travel Lessons: Cultural and Spiritual

Issue #271 - Spirituality and/or Religion?



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