FaithNews

An interview with Greenland’s only Catholic priest

Gina Christian - OSV NewsApril 02, 2025

Franciscan Father Tomaz Majcen, the only Catholic parish priest serving in Greenland, is seen with several of his parishioners at Christ the King Church in Nuuk, Greenland. (OSV News photo/Father Tomaz Majcen)

(OSV News) — Father Tomaž Majcen, a Conventual Franciscan, is the only Catholic parish priest in Greenland, working alongside two fellow Franciscan friars.

OSV News asked the Slovenian-born Father Majcen—who serves at Christ the King Church in the capital city of Nuuk—to share his experiences of ministering in Greenland.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

 

Letters for Lent: What I learned writing and mailing 40 notes

Valerie SchultzApril 03, 202

Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash

My friend’s church has initiated a novel Lenten practice, which is to write a letter every day in Lent and mail it: 40 letters in 40 days. The idea is to write something positive to someone important to you—friend or family, mentor or co-worker, or even someone you admire but have never met. Halfway through Lent, I have written to my children, my siblings, old friends, relatives and some folks I admire. I had to buy more stamps.

Old-school letter-writing is up my alley. Like many O.G. writers, I am obsessed with the mail. As the kids say: If you know, you know. In the olden days of freelance writing—the late 1900s as one young person recently said, speaking gingerly as though not to disturb the dust—all of my writing business with magazines and newspapers was conducted through the U.S. mail. I sent a self-addressed, stamped envelope (we insiders called it a SASE) with every submission, which was the acknowledged way to facilitate a reply. Answers from editors could take weeks or months, and they didn’t always come. I used to check the mail daily, stalked the mailman really, ready to pounce on anything that appeared in my own handwriting. It might, although not often, be good news! For the price of two stamps on the SASE, you could ask for your original (rejected) manuscript back. Then you could send it out again. My mail carrier once asked me what my deal was, why I mailed so many things to myself. Maybe all my work made his mailbag heavier.

What Catholic social teaching says about Trump’s ta

 

Politics & SocietyInterviews

What Catholic social teaching says about Trump’s tariffs

Grace LenahanMarch 03, 2025

President Donald Trump stands before British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

On Tuesday, March 4, 2025, the Trump administration is set to impose tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico. In 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term, the United States imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, citing national security concerns. This time, the Trump administration has cited concerns over the Canadian and Mexican governments’ alleged negligence regarding the flow of undocumented immigrants and illicit drugs—particularly fentanyl—into the United States.

Stephen Pitts, S.J., a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Applied Economics at the University of Minnesota, studies the causes and consequences of migration from an economic perspective. In a February interview with America, Father Pitts spoke about how the Trump administration’s tariffs align or conflict with the principles of Catholic social teaching.

We need a theology of abundance

ncr

Daniel P. Horan

We need a theology of abundance

Guest Voices

The scarcity mindset is governed by fear and self-interest, but a theology of abundance more closely aligns with the life, ministry and preaching of Jesus Christ in the Gospels.

 

Worried about the US birth rate? Make our economy and society more family friendly

 

Guest Voices

Opinion

Worried about the US birth rate? Make our economy and society more family friendly

Thomas Reese, Religion News Service  ncr

After illness, can Pope Francis consolidate his vision of church?

 

Guest Voices

April 3, 2025

After illness, can Pope Francis consolidate his vision of church?

Diego Mauro  ncr

 

Community

Zoom Event | Praying through Holy Week with ‘Jesuitical’ and Father James Martin

America StaffApril 01, 2025

iStock

Link for the event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87337121891

Join America Media for a subscriber-only virtual event with James Martin, S.J., as we enter into Holy Week. Father Martin will speak with Ashley McKinless and Zac Davis, co-hosts of the “Jesuitical” podcast, about deepening your prayer life as we journey from Holy Thursday and Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Their discussion will explore how we can enter into the mystery of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection—and carry the hope and joy of Easter beyond Sunday into everyday life. Don’t miss this opportunity to reflect and prepare to live out the joy of the Resurrection. The conversation will be recorded for those who are unable to join us live.

Date and Time:

Monday, April 14, 12:30 p.m. ET

Panelists:

• James Martin, S.J., editor at large of America and author of Come Forth
• Ashley Mckinless, executive editor and co-host of “Jesuitical”
• Zac Davis, director for digital strategy and co-host of “Jesuitical”

Important:

You can join the Zoom webinar here. You will need to be an active subscriber and logged in to view it.

Watching Christians Celebrate Killing

The Trump team’s appalling war-plan chat

David Carroll Cochran

April 1, 2025

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press conference (OSV News photo/Lisa Marie David, pool via Reuters).

Five hundred years ago, Desiderius Erasmus hoped that someday Christian leaders would help create a more peaceful world by thoughtfully applying their faith to questions of war. It’s safe to say he would not be encouraged by the leaked group chat featuring top Trump officials discussing airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

There’s been a great deal of reflection within Christian traditions, especially in the last century, about whether Christianity is more consistent with just-war theory (the view that Christians may resort to war under certain conditions) or some version of pacifism (the view that no war is consistent with the Gospel). But a rare glimpse of actual Christians in power making actual decisions about actual warfare revealed just how little they care about any of it. Instead, it exemplified how Christian leaders use empty religious gestures as window dressing for war-making.