On social media this week some of our Protestant brothers have been using this story of St Dismas--the repentant thief who was crucified with Jesus--to take some pokes at the Catholic Church teaching. "You Catholics say baptism and Eucharist and good works are necessary for salvation, but what about the Good Thief huh? All he had [...]
Social media was buzzing this week in reaction to a ludicrous article at the National Catholic Reporter about a church in Ohio which was handed over to the traditionalist Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. Apparently the traditionalists dismantled a wooden "Vatican II altar" and an older member of the parish is unhappy. What is [...]
It seemed that I saw a most wondrous tree born aloft, wound round by light, brightest of beams. All was that beacon sprinkled with gold. Gems stood fair at earth's corners; there likewise five shone on the shoulder-span. All there beheld the Angel of God fair through predestiny. Indeed, that was no wicked one's gallows, [...]
Heresies are like weeds. They keep coming back. The thing is, they come back in different guises. In the fourth century Arianism was part of the great debate over the divinity of Christ and therefore the definition of the Holy Trinity. Arianism developed into not just a theological problem, but a major schism. The Arians had [...]
In her later years my Mother moved from the independent Bible Church in which we grew up to join a Presbyterian Church. At the Presbyterian Church they recited the Apostles' Creed each week, so on one of my visits home I asked Mom what she meant when she said she believed in One, Holy, Catholic and [...]
One of the most common questions kids ask when I visit their religion classes is "Were there dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden?" Other questions about the first chapters of Genesis are "If Adam and Eve were the first people what about evolution?" or the classic, "If Adam and Eve were the first people where did [...]
I have just finished reading Austen Ivereigh's biography of Pope Francis in order to review it alongside a new book assessing the Francis papacy called The Synodal Pope. One of the themes of Pope Francis' life that Ivereigh brings forward time and again is the need for the church to be involved in mission and evangelization. These are [...]
It is clear that Christianity in Africa is the Christianity of the twenty first century. The African Church is young, vibrant, growing and demographically dominant. Here are some statistics: With 171.9 million faithful, sub-Saharan Africa represents 16 percent of Catholics worldwide, a third the number in Europe and more than double that in the United States. [...]
Over on X someone posted a quote from the media "scientist" Bill Nye that observes the seeming insignificance of human beings in relation to the vastness of space: ""We are just a speck, on a speck, orbiting a speck, in the corner of a speck, in the middle of nowhere." OK. This is elsewhere called the [...]
Yesterday after our Solemn Mass at 10:30 an older couple visiting from Pennsylvania stopped to talk with me. They were amazed at the packed church, the number of altar boys, the beautiful singing of the girls' choir, the reverence and focus on worship. "In our diocese" they said, "they are closing schools and merging parishes. The [...]