A sub-category of News.
I remember distinctly the day Jorge Bergoglio was elected pope. Working for a diocese, I was in the middle of a meeting with an older woman and a deacon. They wanted to know if they could start a support group for families with members who were same-sex attracted. The woman’s son was a practicing homosexual,…
This year, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts will observe Patriots’ Day on Monday, April 21, in honor of events that took place on April 19: the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy (Arlington). These are generally considered the beginning of the American Revolution, the first civil war, which resulted in the formation of these United States….
In the Gospel for Easter Sunday, we have St. John’s account of the two apostles, Peter and John, discovering the tomb empty. The evangelist records how John, the younger of the two, outran Peter and arrived first at the sepulcher. But the younger apostle deferred to Peter and allowed him to enter first. John followed,…
Happy Easter! My hopeful prayer is that you experience, in this Easter Season, true joy in a personal encounter with the Risen Lord. The Church’s firehose of imagery and traditions and sacred liturgy has been blasting fully at our little drinking cups. Holy Week and the Sacred Triduum can overwhelm as we reach the apex…
Above: New York Easter parade on Fifth Avenue. April of 2025 has a great many holidays and momentous events to remember. April 18 and 19 are the 250th anniversary of the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy in Massachusetts, and so shall usher in the beginning of our national Semiquincentennial. This year, however, those days…
Caesar, like the poor, is always with us. So is Judas. And so are the disciples of Christ. The Tyrant, the Traitor, and the Martyr. These three types of men form the very threads from which the tapestry of history is woven. Caesar and his followers come in many philosophical shapes and many ideological guises,…
What do you say to someone who is about to die? Is there some advice you should pass along, a recommendation, say, on how best to spend his or her last day? And, by the way, that’s everyone, since nobody’s getting out of here alive. What about telling them not to schedule any other appointments…
Have you heard? The world is going to Hell in a handbasket. Our politicians are devils, our hierarchs are often devils themselves, and Catholics are leaving the Church in droves. The media lies to us, and our institutions turn our children into post-modern pill-addicted zombies who can’t be happy in a society where they lack…
Above: The Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-16) by Matthias Grünewald An excerpt from The School of Jesus Crucified. 1. Her sufferings in the Crucifixion of her Son. Never has any mother or pure creature suffered a more painful martyrdom than that endured by Mary in beholding her most beloved Son barbarously crucified under her very eyes. Full…
Above: 17th century Paris. Source. Four centuries ago, on April 17, 1625, history witnessed a landmark event: the founding of the Congregation of the Mission of Saint Vincent de Paul († 1660), commonly known as the Lazarists, named after their motherhouse, Saint-Lazare in Paris. This anniversary provides an invaluable opportunity to reflect on the enduring…
