Celibacy is one of the most widely recognized characteristics of a Roman Catholic priest. But though it is well known, celibacy itself is often misunderstood...
Glad You Asked
Glad You Asked is a column that presents informed, enlightened responses to basic questions of Catholic doctrine, history, identity, or pastoral practice.
For most of the year Christians hear a part of a letter of St. Paul read during Sunday worship. But if you had stopped Paul on the street in some place like...
“By what authority are you doing these things?” (Mark 11:27–28). With this and similar questions the gospels relentlessly portray Jesus’ opponents—the chief...
I often teach men and women who return to college later in life to complete a degree. It is not unusual that some of them are older than I am, and I often...
People today tend to think that history is pretty much about facts. Though history is always interpreted, the aim of history is to uncover facts to paint a...
Think of a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or a child with spinal cord injuries. Imagine a treatment that promises their recovery at the...
Christianity has always emphasized faith as a person’s life-defining response to Jesus Christ. Early Christians put their deepest convictions about God...
The Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), whose members are commonly known as “Lefebvrites” after their founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, is a group of about...
When my mother was a girl, she lost a ring that meant a lot to her. Given that she was a very devout child, she did what any right-thinking Italian American in...
The smarty-pants answer is that it happens all the time. There’s no security check at Communion stations. Ushers seldom rack up more than a couple of Communion...
