Month: November 2019

A Model Priest

November 13, 2019

On his upper right shoulder were tattooed the words:  VENI  VIDI  VICI.

The middle-aged man pumping gas into his SUV at the pump in front of me didn’t look like a Latin scholar. But his large tattoo opened up a way of conversation on this quite warm early autumn day. No, he answered my query, he was not a student of an ancient language, but rather more of a Roman historian. Since his retirement from the medical profession, he now pursues his lifelong passion of studying the Caesars and their entourage.

Msgr. Flood, a Role Model For All 62 Years of Priesthood

November 13, 2019

by Peter J. Purpura Sr.

Ordained June 1, 1957, Msgr. William (Bill) Flood is now in his 63rd year as a priest in the Diocese of Brooklyn. His vocation can be traced back to growing up in Blessed Sacrament Parish in Jackson Heights, followed by Bishop Loughlin H.S. in Fort Greene. 

Coming Closer to the Final Judgment

November 13, 2019

by Father John P. Cush

Emily Dickinson, in her poem numbered 479, more commonly known by the first line of the work, “Because I could not stop for death,” writes:

The ‘Synodality’ Masquerade

November 13, 2019

During the 2001 Synod of Bishops, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, who’d suffered through a lot of synodal speechifying and small-group discussions over the years, made a trenchant observation: “Jesus Christ didn’t intend his Church to be governed by a committee.” Indeed.

Self-Gift and Self-Awakening

November 13, 2019

There are several reasons I am enthusiastic about David Brooks’ new book, “The Second Mountain.” One is that Brooks seems to have embraced a philosophy I teach students at St. John’s University, the philosophy of personalism.

Our Lady and Souls In Purgatory

November 13, 2019

In November, we commemorate the Holy Souls in purgatory. The existence of purgatory — where all those souls who die in the state of sanctifying grace and yet still have to undergo a period of purgation before entering the kingdom of God, because according to Scriptures nothing sin tainted will enter heaven — is a dogma of our Catholic faith. 

The Best Way to ‘Preach’ To the Nones

November 13, 2019

This past week, when the U.S. bishops met in Baltimore for their fall general assembly, they were expected to discuss many topics. The specter of Theodore McCarrick and Bishop Michael Bransfield no doubt hung over the proceedings as did the very real problem of sexual abuse and the U.S. church’s proactive manner of dealing with it.

It’s Time for the 2019 Bright Christmas Campaign

November 13, 2019

We are still two weeks away from the beginning of Advent, but the psalm we will hear this Sunday at Mass is like an announcement of Christmas: “Sing praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song. With trumpets and the sound of the horn sing joyfully before the King, the Lord. The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.” The most beautiful time of the year is approaching.