Reflection on Holy Thursday What is so important about Holy Thursday night is the explicit connection between the institution of the Eucharist and a life of service, that is, the link between the sacrament and works of mercy, works of charity, which includes the commitment to social justice in all its forms. An...
Yesterday, Rep. Riley Moore, a Republican congressman from West Virginia, posted four photos to his social media pages. They were taken inside the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a notorious Salvadoran supermax prison known for its extreme conditions and capacity of 40,000 inmates. At least 265 prisoners recently transferred there were deportees from the...
Spy Wednesday, the Wednesday before Easter, is the day we remember Judas Iscariot’s meeting with the chief priests, during which he agreed to give Jesus to them in exchange for thirty pieces of silver. The sum was not nothing – after Judas was stricken with remorse, it was used to purchase a burial...
Latin America lives out its Holy Week immersed in violence, tension, and hope. This is a mysterious time. In the depths of Latin American communities, Holy Week is a ritual and symbolic exercise where Catholic liturgy and popular tradition blend with pre-Hispanic and mestizo cultural languages to tell the story of the Passion,...
On April 2, Dr. Christian Brugger and Fr. Peter Ryan responded to my article on Amoris Laetitia, which itself was a reply to another article they wrote in Catholic World Report. I must say that I truly appreciate their engagement. That said, their reply was disappointing. The debate, unfortunately, remains stuck at its original starting...
Today, I wanted to share a conversation I had a couple weeks ago with Ann Yeong for her podcast, Becoming Me. After attending one of my workshops, Ann invited me on her podcast to talk about the Church’s teaching on human dignity, spiritual abuse, and navigating the Church in the midst of religious...
Holy Week is beginning and there will be several additional liturgical celebrations in the Vatican in the coming days. Due to his continuing recovery, it is unclear how much Pope Francis will be able to participate in the celebrations this year. His doctors have prescribed two months of rest and he has been...
“Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!” This festive acclamation, reported by all four evangelists, is a cry of blessing, a hymn of exultation: it expresses the unanimous conviction that, in Jesus, God...
I grew up in what was once a small, Protestant New England Church. The old brick building still stands on the street front with its quintessential white tower, but by the time it was my church, it had become a very large congregation that took up a gymnasium sized room on a regular...
Our family has just returned from a trip to Portugal, and I still feel as if I am not quite awake from a dream. While there, we toured the regions of Fatima, Sintra, and Santarem, received the hospitality of remarkably kind and welcoming people, and enjoyed wonderful local fare such as the Porto-famed...
I’m thrilled to announce that my new book, The Unknown Modern Side of St. Pius X, is officially out and available for purchase on Amazon! The timing couldn’t be more fitting. Just yesterday, Pope Francis—making one of his first public appearances since being discharged from the hospital—was seen at St. Peter’s Basilica visiting...
This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most powerfully prophetic social justice and peace encyclicals ever written: Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”). Trying to awaken the conscience of the world to reject the “culture of death” which creates “structures of sin,” St. Pope John Paul II wrote in Evangelium...
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