In Colombia, days before Catholic homes and parishes put up decorations of the magi carrying gifts or prepare their crèches for the birth of the baby Jesus...
Parish life
For most Catholics, their local parish is probably the center of their spiritual life. While most parishes likely have a few things in common—a pastor, Sunday...
A few years ago, my boyfriend and I went to the Christmas bazaar at our local Catholic parish. We admired the sugar cookies and crocheted ornaments but didn’t...
Sounding Board is one person’s take on a many-sided subject and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of U.S. Catholic, its editors, or the Claretians. The...
Mary Jane Murphy (who asked to use a pseudonym to protect her new parish job) worked in parish ministry for decades without hearing of the ministerial...
Believe it or not, it can be hard to find a good seat at Sunday Mass. Unlike most churches I’ve attended across the United States in the past decade, where...
I have been a Catholic for seven years; however, as a parent of gay children and a child with autism, I struggle at times with remaining Catholic. As an...
Esther, a lector in one of the parishes in South Bend, Indiana, was recently accosted by a white woman who told her to stop reading at Mass. Not directly...
Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, only 42 percent of the population surveyed in a Pew Research Center poll responded that being part of a Catholic...
When I was in divinity school, all students were required to take a class titled “Negotiating Ministerial Boundaries,” a multi-day long certification earned...
