Through the Scriptures, Tradition, liturgies, and devotions, people can encounter the living Christ and experience his love, healing, and freedom. But what happens when the women and men in the Church who are tasked with teaching doctrine, preaching God’s word, or presiding over the sacraments, do so with carelessness or coercion? What harm...
On May 2nd, 2025, Robert Ferguson, Governor of the State of Washington, signed into law Bill 5375 making it mandatory for Catholic priests and other religious leaders to report “if they have reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse.” This obligation included information received when they were “performing official duties...
I was wondering what to do. You are no good at this. Your writing quality is like a Whatsapp or Facebook post. The words ring in me and make me despondent. “Lord, take this away from me – this need to spill words out in writing about You, if this is Your will,”...
Through the Scriptures, Tradition, liturgies, and devotions, people can encounter the living Christ and experience his love, healing, and freedom. But what happens when the women and men in the Church who are tasked with teaching doctrine, preaching God’s word, or presiding over the sacraments, do so with carelessness or coercion? What harm...
On May 2nd, 2025, Robert Ferguson, Governor of the State of Washington, signed into law Bill 5375 making it mandatory for Catholic priests and other religious leaders to report “if they have reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse.” This obligation included information received when they were “performing official duties...
I was wondering what to do. You are no good at this. Your writing quality is like a Whatsapp or Facebook post. The words ring in me and make me despondent. “Lord, take this away from me – this need to spill words out in writing about You, if this is Your will,”...
The Church is not a democracy. Seriously, how often have we heard this phrase? Does it not hold an honored place among ecclesial truisms, like “the Church thinks in centuries,” or “Catholics don’t sing”? Surely, in a literal sense, we know the Church is not a democracy. When was the last time we...
Note: This reflection on single life was previously published by the Union of Catholic Asian News on March 25, 2025. If you are Catholic, you might recognize that the three Church designated vocational callings are religious life, marriage, and singlehood. However, within the Catholic community, the single life has frequently failed to be...
A Reflection for the 3rd Sunday of Lent In the Gospel reading this week, the fact that Jesus is speaking to a Samaritan woman is quite radical, for Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. Pious Jews were known to take long detours rather than walk through Samaria. It was unheard of for a...
In this episode, I had a wonderful conversation with Anne Carpenter about Hans Urs von Balthasar, power, and vulnerability. Back in January, Anne had an essay in Commonweal titled, Raising the Bastions: Why the American Catholic right turned against Balthasar. In it, she was able to name the root sickness that I’ve seen and experienced...
The most conservative (or traditional, or reactionary—pick what adjective you will) among the Vatican II Council Fathers, the men who prepared most of the working documents that were called into question once the Council was underway, insisted that divine revelation was, as it were, bivocal. They insisted that Scripture and Tradition were two...
There is a great need for this attitude, especially in the contexts where the faith must be proclaimed and inculturated today. It is not a question of acquiring knowledge to fulfil academic obligations, but of embarking on a courageous voyage, a crossing of the high seas. This journey moves in two directions: on...
Over this past week, WPI has run a series of articles and reflections focused on the current suffering of U.S. immigrants and the risks to those who are working to protect them. Central to all of these posts has been the concept of solidarity, the belief that the entire human race is a...
In my first article on this topic, I made the historical and liturgical case for standing, which is the normative posture for receiving Holy Communion in the United States. Several readers pressed back from various angles. Rather than rehearse those exchanges, I want to explore the deeper question that the first article opened but...
I am a descendant of Elder William Brewster and his wife, Mary. Elder Brewster was the spiritual leader of the Pilgrims, one of the first Europeans to set foot in New England, and a signer of the Mayflower Compact. As was typical of women throughout much of history, his wife Mary’s claim to...
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