“Love is the greatest strength of the powerless . . . Love is all-powerful and will even overcome hatred. And only love can do this!” ― Václav Havel Forgiveness is a great wellspring of personal healing. It can repair shattered relati … [Read more...]
The Wheat and the Tares
A Reflection upon Contemporary Priestly Formation
May 27, 2022 by Kevin Symonds
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the tares (13:24–30). Some tares had been sown by an enemy and grew up alongside the wheat. The wise owner of the field instructed his servants to let both grow together until the harvest “ … [Read more...]
An Open Letter to My Bishop and to All U.S. Bishops
February 26, 2022 by Msgr. Paul L. Bochicchio
I write this letter after much prayer and reflection and with the utmost respect for the complex issue of leadership in the church. I am not naïve regarding the challenges that bishops and church leaders face in the light of many crises a … [Read more...]
Flannery Was Right
The Problem of Nihilism Within the Catholic Church
February 26, 2022 by Fr. Damian J. Ference
In a letter to Betty Hester dated August 28, 1955, Flannery O’Connor wrote: “If you live today you breathe in nihilism. In or out of the Church, it’s the gas you breathe.”[1. Flannery O’Connor, The Habit of Being, hereafter HB (New York: Far … [Read more...]
Shepherding the Flock Out of the 1962 Missal
November 24, 2021 by E. Tyler Graham
The time has come, says God to Moses. You must lead my people out of Egypt, out of captivity, toward the Promised Land.[1. Ex 3:10.] Unfortunately for the eager travelers, the journey lasts 40 years,[2. Deut 1:3.] and along the way the … [Read more...]
Clericalism and the Crisis of the Church
When Steve Skojec and Cardinal Marx Agree
June 30, 2021 by Richard H. Bulzacchelli, STD
It’s not news to anyone who’s been paying attention that the broadly-Catholic world is in a state of crisis. If you’re interested in the long history of how we got to this point, there are plenty of places to look, but that’s not what this e … [Read more...]
Philomena, St. John Vianney, and a Blueprint for Converting Parishes
February 12, 2021 by Tate Hilgefort
Last fall my wife was five months pregnant with our 11th child. We had already named her Philomena after the great wonder worker and favorite saint of St. John Vianney. This is when we found out that Philomena had a heart defect that would … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – February 2021
January 28, 2021 by Book Reviews
The Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward. By Ralph Martin. Reviewed by Eduardo Echeverria. (skip to review) Sex and the Spiritual Life: Reclaiming Integrity, Wholeness, and Intimacy. By Patricia Cooney Hathaway, ed. Reviewed by Christopher … [Read more...]
Religious Life: Ideal and Reality
November 13, 2020 by Fr. Richard Gribble, CSC
All aspects of life are experienced on a continuum between the poles of ideal and reality. Human relationships are one example. Certainly, all desire our relationships to be of an ideal, but such a desire is not possible, for reality tells … [Read more...]
Book Reviews – October 2020
October 1, 2020 by Book Reviews
Can Francis Change the Church? How American Catholics Are Responding to His Leadership. By Thomas P. Sweetser. Reviewed by Christopher Siuzdak. (skip to review) Into His Likeness: Be Transformed as a Disciple of Christ. By … [Read more...]
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