Taking the last liturgical step on the path to the priesthood means vowing obedience, lying prostrate before the altar, and symbolically receiving the Book of the Gospels as a sign of one’s new role in the Church.
Guest Columnists
Meditation on a Roman Pizza
Pizza in the Eternal City tends to exemplify a proposition I have long defended: what crossed the Atlantic going west was usually improved in the process. I like Roman pizza, as I like Rome, but I like New York pizza, Chicago pizza, Detroit pizza, and just about every other variant of American pizza — except Hawaiian — more. Still, when in Rome, do as the Romans.
Ecstatic Beauty: Seeing God In Everyday Moments
Recently, I had two experiences of beauty that moved me to reflect on what happens to us when we experience exceptional beauty. I would describe both experiences as “ecstatic.”
Good Journalism Fights Disinformation
Misinformation, disinformation, fake news. It’s around us 24/7 on social media, and bombards us in all forms of media. It’s a big topic in my journalism courses at St. John’s University, where I teach my students how to avoid it: Verify everything, provide balance in your stories, and be unbiased in your reporting.
The Suffering Church in China
In preparation for Pentecost, I went to Sunday Mass in the cathedral church where I had ministered in northeast China. At 6:30 a.m., I participated in the early morning Mass with about 300 people. I was shocked to find the leader of the song was the man that the Religious Affairs Bureau had placed in the bishop’s office as the receptionist. His responsibility had been to “care for” and inform public security on the daily life of the bishop. There on Sunday morning, he was leading the community in song and prayer.
The Legacy of Faith Of Dorothy Day
Several weeks after Servant of God Dorothy Day’s funeral, I was interviewed for a television program in 1981 by a “liberated nun.” She asked me, “What is the legacy of Dorothy Day?” Without hesitation, I said: “Her faith!” The nun was nonplussed, for she thought I would have said: “Her activism, her protests against war,” and so forth. (Today, the nun’s congregation no longer exists.)
My Thoughts on ‘Dignitas Infinita’
“When the always well-written and often wrongheaded New Yorker dislikes something, chances are good that I’ll like it — a principle that holds, with certain reservations, in the case of “Dignitas Infinita,” the April 8 “Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on Human Dignity.”
Retired From Administration, But Not From the Ministry
At the age of 75, bishops are mandated to submit their letter of resignation from administration directly to the Holy Father in Rome.
Witnesses to the Power of the Human Soul
The passage of time is making it less and less likely for a person to stand shoulder to shoulder with a veteran of the Korean War, and even less likely with a veteran of World War II. That both would also happen to be prisoners of war? The chances are quite slight in 2024.
Celebrating the Gift of Consecrated Life
World Day for Consecrated Life is an annual recognition and celebration of the vocation to religious and consecrated life in the universal Church. The term “consecrated life” includes religious sisters, both active and monastic, religious brothers, religious order priests, members of secular institutes and consecrated virgins, all of whom are present in the Diocese of Brooklyn.