Sorry for the break from blogging, but parish and family life have been very busy this last week. What's killing American Catholicism? This is the third part of a series. The problems all begin with the letter 'C'. The first part was Cultural Catholicism. The problem when people are more cultural than Catholic. The Catholic faith transcends [...]
I'm continuing a series on things that are destroying American Catholicism. They all begin with the letter 'C'--as does the solution to the problem. You can use the 'Categories' tool to pull up the whole series as they are written. Here is a link to the first article in the series on Cultural Catholicism If you [...]
Reading Sherry Weddell's excellent Forming Intentional Disciples is making me think about the American church and what ails her. Can anybody deny that there is a sickness in the body ecclesia? When 50% of Catholics vote for a man who stoutly defends same sex marriage and partial birth abortion can we say that Catholics in America are okay? [...]
In his book Evangelical Catholicism George Weigel says, "There is no future for lukewarm Catholicism." There is not only no future for lukewarm Catholicism, but there was no past or present for it either. Let's face it, the gospel is only good news when it is subversive. It's time for what Weigel calls "Evangelical Catholicism" which [...]
On the week before Christmas in 1941 my grandfather was walking with his two sons to market in downtown Pottstown, Pennsylvania. It had snowed the night before and the roads were too icy to drive. That's why they were walking. As they crossed the river bridge a coal truck turned on to the bridge. The bridge [...]
One of the most common pronouncements by the atheists in the combox is that "Christianity is a myth." In one sense they are correct. The gospel story does operate like a myth. However, most of the atheists making this comment do not seem to have a very knowledgeable understanding of myth and how it works. They don't [...]
Do you remember that stylish film The Matrix? The hero, Neo Anderson, exists in a dull, conformist, monotone and monochrome world. Then he wakes up and is "born again" and enters the world of adventure and risk which is the real world. What I find curious about modern American Catholicism is that it is similarly monotone and [...]
You know the theory that a frog put in a pan of water will stay there as the temperature rises and the poor thing doesn't sense the increase in temperature and eventually boils to death. The biggest problem with American Catholics is that the majority of them are asleep. Lulled by materialism, the good life and [...]
What I mean is "successful" in the world's terms. Now that I've returned to America after living in the damp lands for twenty five years, one of the things I find most trying is America's love affair with "success". I'm not talking about being excellent or being a fulfilled human being or finding what you want [...]
One of the difficulties about preaching is there is too much to say and too little time to say it. This is especially true of the celebrations that only come around once a year. So for Christ the King on Sunday I spoke about Blessed Miguel Pro and "Viva Christo Rey!" and the need for majestic [...]