by Greg Erlandson
Fifty-three journalists were killed worldwide in 2018. Some died in war, but a shocking number died exposing corruption, covering protests or just doing their job. Time magazine called them and their harassed and persecuted colleagues “Guardians” of truth, and named them collectively “Person of the Year.”
QUICK REMINDER FOR those of us who attend Mass regularly. Many people are going to join us on Dec. 24 and 25 who don’t normally come to church. They will take our parking spots, our usual pews, our hymnals and our coat hooks.
What fantastic news!
TWENTY YEARS AGO this month, I found myself seriously double-booked, so to speak.
IN THE LINER notes of an album, musicians usually thank their colleagues, staff, and family for their talent and support. But on the back cover of Grammy nominee Matt Maher’s new record “The Advent of Christmas,” the singer-songwriter expresses an unusual sentiment of gratitude: “Thanks to the red cardinal that kept showing up during the making of this record.”
This time of year, we reflect on one Marian visitation unique to the western hemisphere and to the Americas – Our Lady of Guadalupe. … Perhaps now is the time for the Americas to revisit the Blessed Mother’s message.
Yes, as we go through life waiting for history’s final moment, we have a responsibility to welcome one another, to take care of each other, especially those who are most vulnerable. They are the face of Jesus Christ among us.
by Msgr. Steven A. Ferrari
“IT’S NOT THE news that any of us hoped that we would hear; it’s not the road we would have chosen.” These are the opening lines of Ellie Holcomb’s song “Find You Here.”
The beautiful feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Piux XI in 1925 – two years prior to Blessed Miguel’s death – to combat the rise of secularism. Today, we continue to face an insidious secularism that threatens our acknowledgement of God and His plan for our salvation.
As the U.S. bishops gathered in Baltimore on the weekend of Nov. 10-11, it seemed certain that, after a day of prayer, penance and reflection on the Church’s sexual abuse crisis, they would take two important steps toward reform. An episcopal code of conduct, holding bishops accountable to the standards applied to priests in the 2002 Dallas Charter, would be adopted. And the bishops would authorize a lay-led mechanism to receive complaints about episcopal misbehavior, malfeasance, or corruption; allegations found credible would be sent to the appropriate authorities, including those in Rome.
I’m just old enough to remember when my elders still called Nov.11 “Armistice Day:” the armistice in question that which stopped the shooting in the Great War. As a military matter, World War I may have ended a century ago, on November 11, 1918, allowing my Grandfather Weigel and millions of other doughboys to be demobilized. The devastating cultural effects of the Great War are still being felt today, though.
