One of the most important decisions the bishops at the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) made was their refusal to go along with the secrecy that Vatican...
Religion
Essays explaining our faith, including stories about church teaching, Vatican documents, canon law, liturgical theology, and other Catholic topics.
"Judaism," writes Rabbi Lawrence Kushner in his new book, Jewish Spirituality: A Brief Introduction for Christians(Jewish Lights), "is a...
When it comes to figuring out what the Jesus of Christian faith has to do with the anthropological Jesus studied by historians, Catholics are lucky: They have...
When teaching Bible classes in parishes, I often begin with the question, “When I say ‘characters of the Bible,’ what names come to mind?” The consistency of...
Many gay priests have served and continue to serve our church well. Let's not make them scapegoats for the sins of others. IN OUR CHURCH AND IN THE...
A Bible is a Bible. Or is it? When I taught religion at a Catholic high school, I always had to tell my students to be sure they had a Bible that was...
I once knew a young priest, an affable fellow and gifted liturgist, who nonetheless had the annoying habit of omitting the Creed when he presided at Mass. On...
As a child I have a vivid memory of thumbing through a large book owned my grandfather that riveted my attention. It was a collection of the illustrations done...
There is an Apocryphal story in my family about my great-grandmother Philomena, who died when I was 12 or 13. Great-Grandma was a big TV watcher-soaps...
Sacrifice was certainly a central factor in the catholic spirituality of my youth. We attended the "sacrifice of the Mass" daily. Sacrifice was not...
