Pope Francis: "You can't imagine a Church without joy"...
Let us now praise famous men...
In his 2008 book, The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America , Boston College historian James M. O'Toole did a fine job of fleshing out the conventional U.S. Catholic story-line by emphasizing the role prominent lay men and women played in the Catholic experience in these United States...
Every 10 years a river of fog fills the Grand Canyon. This is what it looks like...
Answering those who say there is only one Mediator...
I recently had an interaction with a commenter on this blog who brought up the common Protestant objection that, since there is one (sole) mediator between God and Man, Jesus, asking the saints to pray for us is useless, wrong and maybe even sinful. Yes it is quite a common objection, more so today that...
Missing nuns, missing details, in ravaged Maaloula...
Trust me on this. I know that it must be impossible for journalists to cover events in the war-torn land of Syria right now without getting their heads blown off. This is especially true for correspondents linked to Western news organizations that are trying to cover the actions of Islamist radicals. However, how hard is...
Resilience is for sissies. Here's how to become Antifragile...
The two most distinctive points of Evangelii Gaudium" are...
In the voluminous apostolic exhortation "Evangelii Gaudium" made public one week ago, Pope Francis has made it known that he wants to distinguish himself on at least two points from the popes who preceded him. The first of these points is also the one that has had the greatest impact in the media...
10 things you need to know today: December 3, 2013...
11 things you might not know about reindeer...
4 factors that are fueling the crisis in marriage and family...
We were not "outmarketed" on gay marriage. We were "outevangelized"...
5 things successful people do before 8 in the morning...
Saint Francis of Assisi was much more than an animal-loving peacenik with an odd haircut...
Saint Francis was a poet, a pastor, and an evangelist: He stood before sultans and saints, beggars and bishops, and he preached Jesus Christ crucified. And Saint Francis lived a Gospel that was unnuanced, optimistic, and ceaselessly demanding. Saint Francis was the man who said that pure joy would come through being tossed from a monastery...
It's all about the kids, isn't it?
This dawned on me over the Thanksgiving weekend, when I was back in St. Louis with my family. Besides eating . . . which I obviously relished - - and sleeping, we spent most of our time just enjoying the kids! There we sat, passing one little one to another, cooing, talking baby-talk, or laughing as the kids would do something new...
Moving to a smaller house means shedding books. Should I throw out my Bertrand Russell?
Later this year, now that the value of property is picking up a little, my wife and I shall be putting our house on the market. Our family has grown up; we do not, strictly speaking, need a house of this size; and more compellingly, when we bought it, the plan was that in due course it would be sold and that the proceeds would give us, well...
War is upon us! 9 ways to overcome temptation and prepare for battle...
There is a spiritual battle that rages in places we cannot see with our eyes or hear with our ears. It rages in our hearts, our culture, and in our world. In the Sacred Scriptures God continually warns His people to prepare for war. Yes, He is The victorious King who has entered the fray...
Creative Catholic Christmas gift ideas...
How about preparing a Catholic car gift set for the friend with a long commute or chronic road tripper?Tiny Saints offers adorable little charms for their keys, a St. Christopher visor clip and/or an auto rosary for their rearview mirror are a must, and a decal from CatholiCar is a great finishing touch...
In a nutshell, here's the cultural crisis in American Catholicism today...
One way to describe the present situation of the Church in the United States is to say American Catholicism is in a state of cultural crisis. And if that is true, then restoring a healthy Catholic subculture is necessary not just for the Church's flourishing but for its very survival. Literature and art have to be part of it. There's a powerful link...
Where will you be when the first trumpet sounds? A good question asked in an Advent hymn...
13 Internet memes about the time when jolly old St. Nicholas punched a heretic...
Pope Francis reshapes his revolution...
The Ch urch according to Pope Francis is outlined in the nearly 260 page-long Apostolic Exhortation «Evangelii Gaudium» (The Joy of the Gospel), that he wrote in two weeks in Spanish (with some neologisms and slogans) with a clear core message: the Church must come out, to the streets, and announce the Gospel to all. The Church, he notes...
Evangelii Gaudium feels like the jab of a shepherd’s staff, and resonates like a shepherd's terse call to the sheep...
In his hand written notes that formed the basis of his presentation during the General Congregations prior to the Conclave, then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio penned the following: When the Church does not go out of herself to evangelize, she becomes self-referential, she grows ill (like the stooped woman in the Gospel)...
Pope Francis: Advent is a journey towards horizon of hope...
6 ways to prepare your "domestic church" for Advent...
Aww-worthy photos of tiny animals on fingers...
Who said it: Pope Benedict or Pope Francis? Test your Catholic savvy with this Buzzfeed quiz...
Crystal Cathedral closed for transformation into Catholic church; reopening set for 2016...
Two years ago, in November 2011, I told the story of the iconic Crystal Cathedral, facing bankruptcy and forced dissolution, and the last-minute decision to accept the bid of the Diocese of Orange, rather than from competing bidder Chapman University. At the time, I interviewed Tim Busch...
Another viewpoint on the move of the Vatican embassy...
Five former American Ambassadors to the Holy See, who were appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, are unanimous in their condemnation of the closure of the American Embassy at the Vatican. I made no comment about this embassy closure at first because I didn’t know what it was about. I changed my mind when...
The 10 most beautiful classical symphonies...
Nothing is truly Catholic without this important element...
There was another gun in a mall - and a school. Another young man, loved but painfully depressed, kills himself. There’s debt, death, pain, blindness, filth. It’s in our politics, culture, family life. So much of it can tempt us to despair. And yet over the last eight months...
Kitsch or kitchen sink? Illustrating conservatism with Andrew Wyeth and Thomas Kinkade...
In 2012 Thomas Kinkade, America’s Painter of Light died in his sleep at his home in California. He was fifty-four. Three years earlier another American realist painter-Andrew Wyeth-died in his sleep in his Pennsylvania home. He was ninety-one...
"New Year's" with Pope Francis...
As this First Sunday of Advent marks the start of the liturgical calendar, warm wishes for a Buon Anno di Grazia to one and all. To mark the day, the Pope began by presiding at last night's customary Vespers with Rome's college students. The more unique of the events comes later today, though, as Francis makes his second visit to a Roman parish...