“We run the risk of concealing Christmas behind bourgeois customs and sentimentality, behind all those traditions that make this holiday dear and precious to us,” wrote Father Alfred Delp, S.J., from his cell in a Nazi concentration camp. “Yet perhaps the deep meaning is still hiding behind all those things. What this celebration is about […]
Editorials
Clearing a Path
In The Apostle’s Creed, we profess that at some point between His death and resurrection, Christ “descended into hell.” Though the origins of this doctrine are obscure and scriptural references sparse, the logic is strong that salvation – to be truly universal – must reach into the very heart of darkness, the jaws of evil […]
Focus on His Peace
Advent begins – a new year for our journey of faith through our time in salvation history. As good a time as any for each one of us, layperson, religious, priest – in whichever current position or stage of life and well-being – to take a personal spiritual inventory. The question at the end of […]
A Family of Faith
We have just completed a worldwide observance of the Year of Faith and are about to enter the Advent season of a new liturgical cycle. Now seems an opportune time to count our blessings, especially during a week in which we gather with family for Thanksgiving. In keeping with the theme of faith, it makes […]
Faith’s Rallying Cry
How soon the End Times may be coming not even Jesus would disclose. No one knows the day or the hour. Yet the possibility of a sudden disruption of our comfort zone and even chaotic upheaval is always upon us, whether wrought by global forces, natural or anthropogenic, or through the simple course of each […]
The Francis Effect
It’s being dubbed the Pope Francis “Effect” – the apparent surge of Catholics returning to regular church attendance that is being logged and monitored among congregations in Italy and even as far as the British Isles. Is it a trend? Initial indications were anecdotal, as journalists cited clerics in Italy such as Giuseppe Cardinal Betori, […]
Modern Slavery
After a recent Nov. 2-3 workshop of the Pontifical Academy of the Sciences to which Pope Francis had summoned experts in socio-economic, medical and pastoral matters, to discuss the incidence of human trafficking today, the Vatican announced last Monday, Nov. 4, that the pope wants action. An issue close to his heart, no one knows […]
Speaking Truth to Power
Judging from the ubiquity of its symptoms this time of year, Halloween and its lucrative progeny of horror flicks, costumes, candy and other paraphernalia has become an American celebration, second only to Christmas. Parades in the larger cities push already fragile limits of propriety even as manufacturers produce apparel that spares no one’s religious or […]
Consent of the Governed
The drama of the federal fiscal standoff – recently postponed, if only till January – bears all the earmarks of the Kingdom of the World at its worst. The looming idols of power, money and lust well overshadowed any of the founding principles of our nation, even the more secular values of economic freedom, ownership […]
Connecting with Hope
The most diabolical of all temptations may be that of discouragement. It leaves us disconnected with God – the source of all hope – with ourselves and with one another. In singling as world-wide crises the loneliness of the aging and the unemployment of the young, our Holy Father acknowledges two consequences of the hopelessness […]