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....
Imagine three expressions written above the doorway… The expressions are: “may I?”, “thank you”, and “pardon me”. Indeed, these expressions open up the way to living well in your family, to living in peace. They are simple expressions, but not...
In the last few years, including during the pandemic, I have attended a few baby showers and noticed one very favorable change to showers of a previous era. Moms and dads asked that families and friends bring their favorite children’s...
Perhaps you’ve heard about the “massive new Catholic center planned for east Texas”? The launch plans for a new effort called Veritatis Splendor (after the encyclical of Pope John Paul II of the same name) indicate a vision far bolder...
Each year at Christmas, I have a difficult time reconciling the hard realities that must have surrounded Jesus’ birth and how it has been romanticized over the centuries. The Annunciation, the Visitation, Joseph’s dilemma, Quirinius’s census, Mary and Joseph’s travel...
This Easter, due to the suspension of parish activity in the current crisis, will be much different than any most of us have ever experienced. Without in-person access to sacramental liturgy, many families are seeking ways to pray and worship...
I didn’t originally plan to write about the phenomenon of social distancing in this series; indeed, I wasn’t even aware that the term existed when I began writing these essays about loneliness. However, three months into the “Loneliness Today” series,...
The Church in the West is struggling to hand on the faith to the next generation. Parents themselves may find it difficult to remain in the faith. The abuse crisis has shattered trust in the Church, even while the Church...
This is the first in a projected series of essays dealing with the phenomenon of “loneliness,” beginning with a discussion of the loneliness described to Pope Francis in the “youth encounter” in Tokyo, and moving from there into a broader...
You may have heard of an ultra-conservative Catholic group called Tradition, Family and Property (TFP), which has been involved in various efforts to oppose the initiatives of the Francis papacy. As Christopher White from Crux recently reported, Alexander Tschugguel, the...
Reading through Christus vivit recently, I found a section labeled “Dreams and visions” (§§192-197), a six-paragraph-long exegesis of Joel 3:1: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young...
In his Sunday Angelus this week, Pope Francis returned to a topic that he’s discussed many times, one that hasn’t received as much attention as more “controversial” subjects related to doctrine and moral theology, but is central to his papacy...
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