A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 15, 2020 The latest data tells us that the richest 1% own more than half of the world’s wealth. In the United States, top 20% of Americans own 86% of the country’s wealth...
Realities are greater than ideas. Pope Francis keeps saying these words, and I think his understanding of this is something that sets him apart from his immediate predecessors. Don’t get me wrong—I love Popes Benedict and St. John Paul II....
These have been a heavy few days for Catholics. Journalists and commentators are working to review the McCarrick report and decipher who is accountable, who has been lying, and who has manipulated the scandal to their own advantage. I want...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 8, 2020 These are not the easiest days for us, both as a nation and as a world. We find ourselves caught up in the mayhem and turmoil of a political contest different...
Last week, we celebrated the Autumn Triduum—Halloween, All Soul’s Day, and All Saints’ Day. These three days welcome us to November, a month that is dedicated to eschatology and the contemplation of the last things. Many of us who are...
Our world is in need of peace. All around the globe, and especially in the United States, we see the rotten fruits of a society that is not at peace. There is violence in the streets, rage on social media,...
Sometime after the 2012 US election, I made a commitment that has continued to inform my conscience and my approach to politics and society ever since: I chose to step away. I was something of a political news junkie for...
Death is inevitable. For the bulk of human history, this has been a universally acknowledged and widely emphasized truism. Victorious Roman generals, as they paraded through the city in triumph, would be accompanied by someone whose job it was to...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for November 1, 2020 All Saints’ Day has a very long and interesting history. While the exact origin of this feast is unclear, historians believe that it began organically at the end of the Christian...
God’s continuous act of separation occurs in the so-called first creation account of Genesis (Gen 1:1–2:3): light from darkness, water from water, water from land. This act of separation provides form to the formless, and as creation proceeds so too...
This morning, my local ordinary, Washington’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory, was named by Pope Francis as one of 13 new cardinals who will be elevated during a November 28 consistory in Rome. Archbishop Gregory has served the Church for many years...
A reflection on the Sunday readings for October 25, 2020 When couples approach me for marriage preparation, they must complete a pre-nuptial inventory form. One part of the inventory concerns the couple’s “spiritual assessment.” Among the questions in this segment is...
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