Today, we fix our gaze on Jesus, who was baptized at the age of about 30 by John in the Jordan River. It was a baptism of penance that used the symbol of water to express the purification of the heart and of life. John, known as the “Baptist”, that is, the “Baptizer”,...
A review of the book The Virtue of Affability or Friendliness and Its Relevance in Modern Evangelization by Anne DeSantis (En Route Books and Media, 2024). The Virtue of Affability or Friendliness and Its Relevance in Modern Evangelization offers a much-needed corrective to the polarized extremes within the Church that often overlook its rich...
Pope Francis’s appointment of Sister Simona Brambilla as the first woman to lead a major Vatican office marks a historic milestone in the Catholic Church’s governance. As the new prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, Brambilla will oversee all Catholic religious orders. According to statistics...
In these early days of the new year, many of us are probably feeling a mixture of anxiety and hope – anxious about the many crises in our nation and world, yet hopeful that 2025 will be better. In his January 1, 2025 World Day of Peace message, titled “Forgive Us Our Trespasses:...
I’m a little bit late weighing in on Pope Francis’s appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy as Archbishop of Washington. This news is personal to me, as I have spent most of my life in this archdiocese. Speaking personally, I am much more concerned with the local implications of this move than I am...
This is the last in a series of essays dealing with moral theology on which I have been working for some time. Other installments (the first of which is a preliminary of sorts, more devotional and specifically Marian than the others) can be found here: “To Harbor Guide Me By Thy Mercy,” May...
In this first episode of 2025, I talked with my good friend and mentor, Monica Pope, about hope. We began by talking about the role of the catechist before launching into a catechesis about hope in light of the theme of the 2025 Jubilee Year, “Pilgrims of Hope.” All of that set up...
The subjective foundation of Peace is a new spirit which must animate coexistence between peoples, a new outlook on man, his duties and his destiny. Much progress must still be made to render this outlook universal and effective; a new training must educate the new generations to reciprocal respect between nations, to brotherhood...
Recently I encountered a woman who said to me that many people have left the Church as a direct result of the news of the unmarked graves on the property of the old Kamloops Residential School in British Columbia — including her husband. Of course, there is no denying that the residential school...
“I tried to shake him awake, but there was nothing. The child was stiff, blue, dark blue in color from the cold.” I read today in the New York Times of how Jumaa al-Batran, three weeks old, died of hypothermia overnight in his parents’ tent; his twin brother, Ali, who was taken for dead, is fighting...
Today these prophetic words have been fulfilled! In Jesus, born in Bethlehem of the Virgin Mary, kindness and truth do indeed meet; justice and peace have kissed; truth has sprung out of the earth and justice has looked down from heaven (…) Here we see the power of faith! God has done everything;...
It is not easy to be an atheist during Christmas. Atheism demands seriousness: if God does not exist, one must be consistent. However, the experience of living without dependence on a Creator Being—a defining characteristic of atheism—often gives rise to a new, subterranean divinity. There is nothing more absolute than denying the possibility...
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