by Father William Byron, S.J. When Joseph Ratzinger was elected pope in 2005 at age 78, I was working at Loyola College (now Loyola University) in Baltimore. A local radio announcer, who was on the air during the late afternoon commute, telephoned me to discuss this breaking news with him on the air. “He’s a [...]

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by Father John P. Cush Several Brooklyn priests studying and working in Rome had the opportunity to assist at the Holy Father’s last public Mass as pontiff. Originally, as is the custom, the Ash Wednesday Mass is at Santa Sabina and is usually a much smaller event. Dominicans and Benedictines would generally assist the Holy [...]

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by Paul Morisi Lent is a unique time in the Church year, one that is solemn and reflective. However, it is also a time when we see a resurgence of what some call “inactive” young adult Catholics. Those who are usually not churchgoers are all of a sudden in the pew next to you, and [...]

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by Veronica Szczygiel On Jan. 13, I sat in a pew of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in Greenpoint. It was the last day of the Christmas season; evergreen trees and wintry branches still wrapped the church in a veil of warmth. Baby Jesus still looked out from His manger of straw; the Magi still brought [...]

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by Stefanie Gutierrez In the New York Times last weekend, Frank Bruni reopened a wound for me in his column, “Catholicism’s Curse,” where he writes about the most recent revelations of the events of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The wound I speak of is not so much that men of God would do something [...]

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by Marie Elena Giossi “Three cheers for Good Shepherd School. We like the teachers. We like the rules. We’re the best with nothing to fear. We love learning through the year. Blue and gold, our colors, so true. When you see them, you’ll get the clue. GS is the best in the land. We’re true [...]

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by Kathleen M. Gallagher After 40 years of legalized abortion in this country, I believe we are close to the tipping point. The Jan. 14 edition of Time magazine methodically analyzes the increasing tilt of public opinion and state public policies toward the pro-life position. It concludes: “the pro-choice cause is in crisis.” Indeed it [...]

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by Paul Morisi As Christians, we are called to be evangelical. We are commissioned by Christ Himself with the daunting task of not only spreading the Good News but also to help people encounter Christ in an intimate and real way. Trying to accomplish this with today’s youth can seem, at times, like an unattainable [...]

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By Father Frank Mann First in a series A current discipline in the Roman Church is for Catholics to abstain from meat on Ash Wednesday and the Fridays in Lent and Good Friday. But Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York would like to make the “no meat on Fridays” a year-round regulation. At their recent [...]

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by Veronica Szczygiel If you turn on the television, you’ll be inundated with advertisements that tell us it’s “the most wonderful time of the year” and “the happiest season of all.” That should be true. But let’s face it: Christmas can be, for many of us, a time of stress and sadness. In order to [...]

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