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Ten years ago, last month, the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church took a striking decision: it elected its youngest member, 40-year old Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, as leader of the largest of the eastern Catholic Churches, a choice confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI. In the ensuing decade, what appeared bold and even risky now seems brilliant and providential. For Major-Archbishop Shevchuk has become one of the world's most dynamic Catholic leaders under exceptionally challenging circumstances. From 1946 until 1990, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church [UGCC] was the world's biggest unde...

On February 25, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives could have addressed any number of pressing issues. The nation was in its 11th month of a pandemic that had already caused enormous economic and social dislocation. Schools remained closed as evidence mounted that online learning was disserving vulnerable poor children. Civil unrest continued in cities whose local governments refused to maintain public order and protect small businesses whose owners often live a hair's breadth from bankruptcy. The stunning work of scientists in quickly producing effective anti-COVID-19 vaccines was being...

As the names Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, and John Chrysostom suggest, the middle centuries of the first millennium, the era of the Church Fathers, were the golden age of the Catholic episcopate. The Catholic Church recognizes 35 men and women as exemplary teachers; 14 of them -- 40 percent of the entire roster of the "Doctors of the Church" -- were bishops who lived in that epoch. Theirs were not tranquil times. But even as these brave shepherds battled heresies within the Church and overbearing rulers who tried to subordinate the Church to their power, they created a spiritual patrimony ...

Echoes is the opinion section of TheBostonPilot.com. The Boston Pilot is a daily news Catholic newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts, covering news and opinion about the Catholic Church and Catholic life. We carry daily news from Boston, New England, US, the Vatican, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central and Latin America. The Boston Pilot is part of the Pilot Media Group, America's oldest Catholic newspaper and the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Thirty years ago, on January 22, 1991, Pope John Paul II's eighth encyclical, "Redemptoris Missio" (The Mission of the Redeemer), was published. In a pontificate so rich in ideas that its teaching has only begun to be digested, "Redemptoris Missio" stands out as a blueprint for the Catholic future. The vibrant parts of the world Church are living the vision of missionary discipleship to which the encyclical calls us. The dying parts of the world Church have yet to get the message, or, misunderstanding it, have rejected it -- which is why they're dying. "Redemptoris Missio" posed a forthrigh...