At Our Lady of the Rosary Church this All Saints Weekend we have the opportunity to view and venerate the first class relics of twelve saints: St Stephen Pope St Gregory the Great St Bernard of Clairvaux St Maria Goretti St Margaret Mary Alacoque St Therese of Lisieux St Theresa of Avila St Catherine Laboure St [...]
Am I disturbed about all the talk about mercy? You bet I am. This is not because I am opposed to the church being the agent of God's mercy, but because I am in favor of it. I'm in favor of it big time. I'm glad the pope has announced the year of mercy. I'm a [...]
I'm having problems with the present talk about mercy in the church. Of course I don't have problems with the Divine Mercy, but the way some churchmen and the press are using the concept of mercy to twist the Catholic Church's teaching and practice. Consider this headline: Cardinal Wuerl: The Catholic Church is moving from legalism [...]
Grandfather of all modernist intellectuals Rudolf Bultmann ...Good Lord Deliver Us. My latest blog post over at National Catholic Register expresses my opinion about the attack on my friends and fellow converts Ross Douthat and Edward Pentin by a gang of elitist intellectual bullies. One of the things in which I rejoice is that [...]
Gay icon and martyr figure Oscar Wilde converted to the Catholic faith on his deathbed. You can read the fascinating story here. In 1900, Wilde developed cerebral meningitis and became very sick. When it became clear he might die, his friend and apparent homosexual lover Robbie Ross who was with him called for a Catholic priest. When the priest arrived, [...]
C.S.Lewis My latest article for National Catholic Register asks, "Loving Muslims? How Do I Do That?" It is a reminder of the document Nostra Aetate--on non Christian religions published fifty years ago today. C.S.Lewis comes into the equation with the story from The Last Battle--the last Narnia book. As usual, one of the best [...]
I invite you to join me for an exciting pilgrimage to Poland next April during the Year of Mercy. This is a wonderful pilgrimage to sites associated with Pope St John Paul the Great and St Faustina. We will be visiting all the holy sites and the shrines associated with them as well as the famous [...]
Therese - Tough and Tender Catholics are often blamed for being obsessed with sex, and the ones who lay this charge are usually sex obsessed secularists. We are interested in sexuality however, because we believe that what we do with our bodies is connected with the destiny of our souls. This is because we [...]
Fr James Martin SJ is an engaging priest. With helpful books on God's sense of humor and practical spirituality he has helped make Catholicism approachable for many people. However, he does seem to have some remarkable blind spots. In an article published over at CNN he asks, Why are Catholics so Afraid of Change? Fr Martin is [...]
Cardinal Vincent Nichols I have not read the final document from the synod on the family in full yet, but there are some conservative grumblings about the ambiguity of a couple of paragraphs. The document seems to encourage the resolution of second marriage issues with the use of the "internal forum". This is a [...]