I was an Anglican priest the summer I met St Therese of Lisieux. I was living in England and had three months free between jobs, so I decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. I was going to hitch hike and stay in monasteries and religious houses on the way. The first leg of my journey [...]
Should the Catholic Church adapt herself and get up to date? Holy deacon Kandra reports here on a survey on why Catholics stop going to Mass. four major reasons why some Roman Catholics stop going to church, among them: Disagreement with church doctrine on birth control, women as priests, homosexuality; A view that there are too [...]
St Joseph of Cupertino - Patron Saint of Pilots and Aviators Today is the feast day of St Joseph of Cupertino. To learn about his life go here. Joseph was born into a poor family in Cupertino, Italy in 1603. His father was a poor carpenter who died before he was born, and his [...]
It never ceases to amaze me how soft and spineless we are when it comes to our Catholic faith. Everything else takes precedence. "It's the annual retreat for your sons and daughters. Your kids have to be there." "They've got a volleyball game that weekend we're so busy I don't feel comfortable asking my child to [...]
In observing the Christian world in which I live and move and have my being it occurs to me that we too often fall into one of two different traps: we are charitable without truth or we are truthful without charity. By “charity” I mean the desire and inclination to be loving, kind and good to [...]
Maybe it's just me, but I seem to hear an increasing amount of grumbling from about the state of the church. Some folks complain about the new generation of priests, "All these guys seem to care about is lace and china tea cups! Are they all pansies? What's going on? Why do they have to return [...]
I once attended a seminar on the deliverance ministry conducted by the author and psychiatrist Kenneth McCall. During the questions and answers three rather excitable women told Dr McCall that there was a witches coven meeting in their town and they wondered how to get rid of it. Dr McCall was a very softly spoken man [...]
Saved from Sacrifice: A Theology of the Cross by S. Mark Heim is a fascinating exposition of the thought of Rene Girard to the theology of the atonement or "what really happened when Jesus died on the cross. I'm reading it as part of my research for a book I am working on called The Sacred Sacrifice which will [...]
Powerful St Patrick Some time ago I had a dream in which I saw a young boy swimming in a river. As he was swimming happily downstream I saw that around the bend was a large crocodile. I watched in terror as the boy swept past the crocodile and the beast slipped out from [...]
I get an increasing number of requests to assist Protestants who are interested in the Catholic Church. One came in today in which a Presbyterian has come to believe in the Apostolic Succession but wonders if that necessarily means he must become Catholic. In the creed we profess the four marks of the Church: that she [...]