With the rise of Christianity a new perspective entered human history: the triumph of the victim. Previously if you were a slave, if you were poor, if you were disabled, if you were strange, if you were an alien in the land, if you were an outcast you were considered to have got what you deserved. [...]
I think it was Fulton Sheen who said something like "There are not a hundred Americans who hate Catholics, but there are thousands of Americans who hate what they think the Catholic Church is." It expresses in a nutshell the problem of anti-Catholicism not only among the general population, but also amongst our non Catholic, Protestant [...]
One of the Catholic buzzwords at the moment seems to be "Mission". So this recent quote is typical: "Synodality is essentially missionary and vice versa mission is always synodal." Apart from the incomprehensible English usage ("missionary" is a noun not an adjective. "Missional" is the word they were looking for) Anyway, in the usual word salad [...]
The other day on social media a Catholic grumbled about his experience at confession. The priest launched into a long lecture which was a mixture of personal advice, psychobabble and pop theology. The penitent was impatient at this and resented having to sit and listen to father's ruminations. I sympathize and certainly in my years as [...]
In today's gospel the mother of St James and St John cheekily asks Jesus for a couple of prime seats in his cabinet for her boys. He corrects her asking if they can share in his chalice of suffering. The embarrassing event of James' mother reminds me of all social climbing, ambitious, manipulative people. In this [...]
I'm blogging from Boystown near Guadalajara Mexico --which is one of the charity boarding schools for poor kids founded by the American priest Ven. Al Schwartz. The school educates 2000 teen aged boys from the poorest families in the area. This morning I attended early Mass with the Sisters of Mary--the religious order established by Schwartz. [...]
Today we had a tour of Mexico City--I'm afraid I pre-judged it by the junky jumble around the airport. The downtown area is much like a modern Italian or French city...a cathedral, a cathedral square (apparently the third largest after Tiananmen Square in China and Red Square in Moscow.) Little cafes, posh shops and crowds of [...]
God connects the dots and we should always listen carefully to opportunities that arise or invitations that are offered. So last Autumn I was invited to take part in a Writer's and Artist's Retreat in San Francisco to take place in June. I hesitated because, after my stroke a few years ago, I'm slowing down. I [...]
In a post on X-Twitter one of our Cardinals asked for prayers as all the bishops meet together to discuss the causes of poverty. That they need to discuss this and don't already have the answers is rather disconcerting. Kind of like a group of dentists getting together to figure out the causes of toothache. Well, [...]
In today's gospel (Mark 3: 20-35) Jesus explains the unforgivable sin. The Pharisees, having witnessed Jesus performing an exorcism, said he did it by the "Power of Beelzebub"--or Satan. Jesus challenges them with two parables--a kingdom set against itself and a thief needing to bind a strong man before he robs him. He then says the [...]