Pope Francis has often condemned an over-intellectualized approach to the faith. In a 2018 Message for World Communications Day, he wrote: In Christianity, truth is not just a conceptual reality that regards how we judge things, defining them as true or false…Truth involves our whole life. In the Bible, it carries with it...
Back in January, I published an article on Where Peter Is about St. Maravillas of Jesus, a Spanish Discalced Carmelite Nun and Foundress who died in 1974 and who has had a noticeable impact on a number of Carmelite monasteries but who is virtually unknown in the English-speaking world. As a result of...
It wasn’t until adulthood that I began to discover the breadth of Catholic social doctrine, a rich body of teaching that I’d somehow never been introduced to in all my years as a practicing Catholic. (The title of Mark Shea’s book on Catholic social teaching, The Church’s Best-Kept Secret, applies to far too...
Six years ago, I finally took the introductory class at my local indoor rock climbing gym. Since then, I have made new friends and grown a community with a group of young adults who invited me to join them as we partnered in our climbs. While over twenty years divide us, what unites...
On Saturday, during the closing Mass for the tenth World Meeting of Families, Pope Francis preached a homily focused on the true freedom of self-sacrifice and the mission of families in the world today, a mission he recognized as courageous. This courage derives from married couples’ and families intentional decision to use human...
In December of 2020, Pope Francis announced a year dedicated to St. Joseph. Along with that announcement he promulgated the apostolic letter, Patris Corde, about St. Joseph. I’ve had a devotion to St. Joseph for a long time. I’ve prayed novenas to him when I’ve changed jobs, moved, bought a house, discerned grad...
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, June 26, 2022 — The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time About 40 miles from Rome on the Tyrrhenian coast is the little resort town of Nettuno. Nettuno is home to the shrine of St. Maria Goretti and is unique among Italian cities in that you’re more...
But today the prob- lem goes far beyond the necessary recognition of these personal situations. It is a problem which exists at the cultural, social and political level, where it reveals its more sinister and disturbing aspect in the tendency, ever more widely shared, to interpret the above crimes against life as legitimate...
Today in a 6-3 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the United States Supreme Court overruled the decisions in Roe v. Wade (1973) and Casey v. Planned Parenthood (1992) and held that “The Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.” The Court therefore upheld a Mississippi law which banned abortion...
One Tuesday in the late 1960s, we met my Dad at the chapel in the Commerce Building at the University of Detroit for the five o’clock evening Mass. The Archdiocese of Detroit had been an “early adopter” when it came to the implementation of the new Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy and the...
Apple | Google | Spotify In today’s new episode of Field Hospital, Jeannie Gaffigan and I discuss the role of women in the Church with internationally-acclaimed scholar Phyllis Zagano, who has written extensively about women in church history, especially women deacons. Zagano, who was appointed the the Pontifical Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women...
Most of us have had some great bosses or pastors over the years, those who are educated, experienced, pastoral, and humble. Of course, it is during conflicts that leaders show their true colors. We often hear that leaders are remembered for how they dealt with the difficult times when tensions were high or...
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