Category: Reflection

Peter’s Faith and Christ’s Promise

The Gospel passage from this past Sunday, Matthew 16:13–20, told the famous story of Jesus asking the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds in...

Seven Years in the SSPX

On a sunny Santa Clara mountainside, I stood in shocked silence. It was lunchtime at the retreat center, and the buffet was ready. Prayers were said, and everyone stood. An unassuming woman in a loose-fitting dress leaned over to me...

Preaching Without Prompts

For better or worse, preachers have always used “canned” content. There has been a wide variety of “homily hints” resources to draw upon, long before the advent of artificial intelligence. Given that, is there anything new or different in generating...

God Does Not Want Suffering

In the past couple of weeks, two readers reached out to me asking if I had ever written anything about how theology about suffering is misused in coercive ways within the Church. Then yesterday, unprovoked, a friend sent me this...

Magnifica Humanitas and the 12 Steps

Dawn Eden Goldstein, theologian, canon lawyer, and author, who has written Father Ed: The Story of Bill W.’s Spiritual Sponsor, a biography of Fr. Edward Dowling, who was pivotal to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, sees a link between 12...

Pope Leo XIV: Celebrating One Year

Shortly after the white smoke went up from the Sistine Chapel on May 8, 2025, I received a phone call from a producer at TRT World, Turkey’s 24-hour cable news network, asking if I was willing to appear on the...