A couple of months ago I openly questioned Andrea Tornielli’s publishing the Latin text of the Vatican’s document Normae S. Congregationis (NC).[i] This past week, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) published not only the Latin text of the document, but also issued a translation in the major European languages.[ii] As the […]
Fr. Stefan Starzynski’s book, Miracles: Healing for a Broken World (Our Sunday Visitor) is one of those faith-building books that every observant Catholic should read at least once. While this book is not quite a new release, I read it and thought, “How and why did I not hear about this book sooner?” The book […]
As a teen, I thought the clergy were supposed to do everything. We laity were just called to pray, pay, and obey. Oh yes, and keep the commandments, of course. The original 10 seemed overwhelming enough. Then I discovered the Sermon on the Mount and nearly passed out. Perhaps this is why many inactive Catholics […]
And the angel said to her in reply, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. (Luke 1:35) When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled […]
The way Willie Bloomquist sees it, he’s living an impossible dream. Of all the players who try to make it to the major leagues, only a relative few actually get there. Bloomquist is one of those few, but he doesn’t attribute this to his own skills. The 34-year-old Port Orchard, Wash., native says he’s not […]
“Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” — Gospel of St. John, 15:13 There are some men who sum up the character of a nation. One such man was Vincent Robert Capodanno. Capodanno represented what was best about America, and now those who remember him would […]
The Church has the charge for the “cura animarum” (the care of souls). Jesus commands His Apostles to go and preach unto all nations (Matthew 28:16-18). In the sixth century, Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote his much celebrated “Regula Pastoralis” (Rule for Pastors) that spoke about caring for souls in various states or conditions. […]
I gave them your word and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world (John 17:14). Today we observe World Communications Day, because communication is important to the life of the Church. In fact, we ARE in the business of communications: evangelization is the […]
The Vatican called it a reform but it’s actually a “war against nuns,” an unprovoked “crackdown” on the dwindling ranks of America’s 55,000-plus religious sisters by a power-hungry pope and his ungrateful bishops. Rather than thanking the aging sisters for their years of service to the oppressed, the patriarchal Catholic power structure is punishing them […]
For The Death Haunted Art of Friendship (Part I), go here. How often in Scripture we find violence mingled with love, like water mingled with wine: in the Song of Songs, the watchmen beating the lover as she searches the city for her beloved; in Genesis, Abram’s knife poised over Isaac’s breast. Yet it is […]
“Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior” (Isaiah 45:15). Man is haughty and prideful, and in his conceit he constructs deities to suit his temperament: deities regal and terrible, blazing with fierce glory and swollen with righteous strength. It is not therefore surprising that so many fail to […]
Style, Sex, & Substance: 10 Catholic Women Consider the Things that Really Matter, edited buy Hallie Lord, is full of spiritual truths and spunk! The ten women who each tackle a different current issue seem to hit most of the hot topics usually found splashed across the covers of women’s tabloids, but from a Catholic […]
In the novel Love Story, Oliver and Jenny want to marry. But their families don’t want them to marry. They are from “opposite sides of the tracks.” Oliver is rich. Jenny is poor. Both are well educated (he from Harvard; she from Radcliff) but aren’t interested in social status. They only want to start a […]
Growing up with a chronically ill mother, I found it very difficult to embrace Marian devotions as an adult. A true and present (and perfect!) mother did not seem real to me. Just as a faithful father reflects the love of God the Father to his children, a faithful mother reflects the love of the […]
Did Jesus really sin? Apparently nearly 60% of all practicing Catholic within the Diocese of Camden, NJ believe so. This was the findings of a religious survey commissioned by the Diocese of Camden, with the intent and purpose of finding out what people know and understand about their Catholic faith. These results should put all […]
“He moved about freely with them in Jerusalem, and spoke out boldly in the name of the Lord. He also spoke and debated with the Hellenists, but they tried to kill him.” (Acts 9:29, NAB) When St. Paul began traveling throughout the Roman Empire, truly going into the culture of death in order to proclaim […]
“Qui pro vobis et pro multis effundetur.” —The words of the consecration of the wine in the Mass, meaning literally “(my blood) which is poured out for you and for many” “But when He added pro multis He wanted that there be understood the rest of those chosen (electos) from the Jews or from the […]
Belief in God increases with age. That is the finding of a longitudinal study by researchers at the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. The Center conducted three surveys on religious faith, questioning people of different age groups in 30 different countries. The surveys—conducted in 1991, 1998, and again in 2008—explored the range of […]
I’m doing something I’ve never done before. I’ve never written a movie review for a movie I have not yet seen or a book review for book I have not yet read. But I am so excited by the “buzz” about an upcoming movie that I thought I’d let you in on some of it. […]
The glorious story of Eric Liddell will soon grace a London stage just as issues of conscience make headlines with Christians defending religious freedom from coercion. Chariots of Fire, the Oscar-winning film of Olympic runner Eric Liddell’s refusal to race on the Sabbath, is being adapted into a play to usher in the 2010 Olympics […]
It’s not politically incorrect to believe in God. Just so long as you acknowledge that all are God’s children, and that there are many, equally honorable paths to the Most High. After all, that’s only fair. How conceited it would be to claim that your way is the only way. There is nothing really new […]
When Charles W. “Chuck” Colson died last week, the headlines screamed about the death of President Richard Nixon’s “hatchet man,” who tumbled from his perch as White House chief counsel after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice in 1974. Some squeezed in fleeting references to the way Colson spent the second half of his life, […]
I am greatly saddened by the death of Chuck Colson this past weekend. I have always been grateful to Chuck for his kindness toward me. I was a part-time research fellow and a full-time mother when he began talking about my first book, “Love and Economics.” There was absolutely nothing for him to gain by […]
I am a cradle Catholic, but my family was not very good about going to confession regularly. It is possible that because my parish priest growing up was beyond liberal, my parents wanted me nowhere near him. Or maybe my liberal parish didn’t offer confession regularly. (The attached school made us say, “In the name […]
