When I was growing up in the pre-Second Vatican Council Catholic Church, the rules of financial transparency in parishes were straightforward: There were none...
Parish life
In the not too distant past, the sexual abuse of children was not seen for the terrible, unacceptable thing that it is. Often when it happened, not only in our...
Barbara Dane loves middle schoolers. She’s been working with adolescents in a youth ministry capacity for more than 20 years. Before that, she taught seventh...
As U.S. Catholics become ever more diverse, so too are Catholic parishes. The result, says professor Brett Hoover, who teaches theology at Loyola Marymount...
Rural parishes don’t lack the people and resources to be the vibrant faith communities they are called to be. Local churches are called to be and do the...
“If someone is gay and searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?” Pope Francis’ well-known words mark a new stage in the church’s relationship...
I live in a three-story house converted into apartments, and my upstairs neighbor, like me, is in her 30s. So are my downstairs neighbors. The yoga classes I...
It took nine months of attending services at her new parish before Sam, who is shy by nature and admits to avoiding events that could feel like a middle school...
In the spring of 2006, I made a decision to try a new Catholic church. As the mother of an 8-year-old with severe autism, I had already experienced my fair...
But how do you get through the pain?” Although tears fill her eyes, the woman’s voice is adamant as she directs this question to the leader of the bereavement...
