In the early ’90s I had a wonderful opportunity to study Gregorian chant at the Pontifical Institute in Vatican City. Most of my colleagues were...
Sounding Board
Santa Claus is a year-round favorite in our house. My 2-year-old spent most of this past summer in a red shirt emblazoned with Santa’s jolly face. He even...
This summer, I joined hundreds of other Catholics in pro-life demonstrations around the White House. We were there to bear witness to the nation as faithful...
My child was born at the dawn of a global pandemic. He doesn’t know a world without a pandemic, just as I don’t know what child care is like in “ordinary” time...
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...
At least 25 years ago the late Archbishop of New York Cardinal John O’Connor told me there were secret discussions in Rome about restoring women to the...
“When are you guys gonna buy a place?” asked a couple sitting at a marriage prep retreat table with my fiancé and me. This was right after the priest leading...
I was always uncomfortable with the narrative that the United States invented and perfected religious freedom. I grew up in the Midwest, perched self...
This year I did something I swore I would never do: I ditched the parish pledge envelopes and signed up for automatic deduction. For years I had been committed...
Most people don’t dream of working for the institutional church; it’s not high on the list for childhood career days or suggestions of what to be when one...
