The Examined Life

Don’t forget the flowers

Bad news about the church can be a good opportunity to remember why we’re here in the first place. With some reluctance I have to admit that one reason I am a...

Certifiably Catholic

Our place in the church isn’t determined by politics or policy. If there’s one lesson Americans can take from the last 12 months of our political...

Priests off the pedestal

A holy-card priest is not the best patron to lead 21st-century ministers into the future. Father Albert Henkel was a good priest. Though gruff and grumbly on...

Watch your steps

Mass could use the hard dose of reality offered by those recovering from addiction.  I go to church every Sunday with a bunch of addicts. Well...

Above and beyond the call

U.S. women religious deserve better than the nunsense of a Vatican investigation. It must be hard being a Sister in America. You spend a century creating a...

Commencement duress

Catholics shouldn't let single-issue politics deprive us of our hard-won place at the heart of America's democracy. Ah, spring. A warming sun melts the...