Up Front and Personal

Sister Ave Tells Story of a Modern-Day Missionary

March 7, 2018

Arthur Mirell’s love for Jesus originated with free hot dogs, a carnival and a friendly priest. As recalled by his longtime friend, Sister Ave Clark, O.P., during an interview with me for The Christophers’ radio show, Arthur was a young Jewish boy in Brooklyn, when he was walking by a church one day. The parish priest invited Arthur and some other children to come enjoy a carnival the church was having. The other kids quickly accepted the invitation, but Arthur just stood there and responded, “I’m not Catholic.”

Attention, All Youth Artists And Art Club Moderators

February 28, 2018

Youth of our diocese take heed! It’s time to sharpen your colored pencils, organize your crayon box, and clean up your brushes and paints. The Tablet’s annual Christ Is Risen Student Artwork Competition is at hand.

Everyone Has a Story! You Just Have to Listen!

February 14, 2018

In his captivating and energetic new book “The Written World: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, Civilization,” the Harvard University professor Martin Puchner writes: “The impulse to tell stories… is so fundamental that it is as if this impulse is biologically rooted in our species.

ARISE to the Challenge

February 7, 2018

Talk about a day of confusion. Valentine’s Day is celebrated on Feb. 14 and this year, Lent starts on the same day. I picture a young couple with ashes on their heads at a restaurant with no food on the plates. While Valentine’s Day lasts only 24 hours, Lent will continue for 40 days. And now is the time to think about how we will observe this season in the Church.

Fond Memories of the Late Msgr. Dr. Rodgers

January 31, 2018

It was a cold morning at 6 a.m. one day in the early 1960s when I first met the late Msgr. William J. Rodgers as an altar boy for Mass in St. Patrick’s Church, Kent Ave., Fort Greene.   “Introibo ad altare Dei. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meam.” He was praying the Tridentine Mass in beautiful ecclesiastical Latin, and I was a Latin newbie fascinated by the language and the ritual of the Mass.

Modern-Day Don Boscos Work Magic in Classrooms

January 24, 2018

Catholic Schools Week is upon us once again. Held annually since 1974 during the last week of January, the event gives us the opportunity to celebrate not only the nearly 45,000 students in our Catholic elementary and secondary schools and academies, but also the almost 2,000 administrators, faculty and staff members who fill our school classrooms, offices, cafeterias, laboratories, gymnasiums, auditoriums, play yards, athletic fields, libraries, study halls and resource areas as well.

Was This a Case of Papal Overreach?

January 18, 2018

The release of Vittorio Messori’s book, “Kidnapped by the Vatican?: The Unpublished Memoirs of Edgardo Mortara” has brought to light an important event in the history of the Roman Catholic Church in the 19th century.

A Tale of Two City Buses

January 10, 2018

A few days after Christmas, I battled the crowds at Rockefeller Center to see the large tree, and the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Christmas creche, which includes “Lex” (short for Lexington), the statue of the rector’s dog, sitting and gazing at the Christ Child.