When an individual or secularised culture has largely abandoned Faith, the Virgin Mary often lingers in grace-filled whispers. Take the ‘Hail Mary pass’ in football, or the lovely musical renditions of the ‘Ave Maria’, both of which remain popular in secular society today. As the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris burned in 2019, strains…
Regular prayer has always been regarded as an essential part of Christian life. In capitalistic Psalms, the believer is compared to a tree planted by a stream that still bears fruit, even in times of drought, remaining full of sap and green, even in old age. Jesus is the one who can give us living…
What does it mean to listen to survivors of abuse? It’s something that the Church repeatedly and emphatically calls us to do. But the call to listen is in danger of becoming an empty slogan if we do not take the time to stop and think about what, exactly, this listening involves. To help us,…
Rohan Healy We are reminded daily of the many social ills that the internet, and social media in particular, perpetuate. The increased sense of social isolation, despite early promises to bring people closer together, the negative effects on self-worth as we are constantly bombarded with exaggerated examples of others success, the ever-present temptation to get…
Sr Hosea Rupprecht When I was a kid, my main form of media consumption was books. I used to go to the library and check out four or five ‘Hardy Boys’ books at a time. I don’t know why I never got into Nancy Drew (I am a girl, after all), but I think it’s…
Jayme Stuart Wolfe Every sincere Catholic hope for a revival of the faith – even if we don’t all agree about what that should look like. But now that the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage has begun, and the National Eucharistic Congress being held in Indianapolis is only six weeks away, I expect that the inside baseball…
Roman Cabay To those who knew me then, the idea of my conversion was an absurd prospect. I was raised non-denominationally protestant, variously attending Anglican and Methodist services as well as Sunday school. Church, to me, was an interminable lecture where I fruitlessly attempted to achieve apostasy. Faith was a private certainty of my damnation…
Deacon Dominic Cerrato The issue of admitting women to the diaconate has been, over the past decade, a subject of intense theological debate. In a recent interview with CBS News, Pope Francis unequivocally stated that women cannot be ordained as deacons. This stance, delivered during a ‘60 Minutes’ interview, has significant implications for ongoing discussions…
Greg Erlandson It is always hard to predict how a generation is going to be judged by history. When my dad graduated in 1939, did anyone see that his would be the Greatest Generation? Yet perhaps the stress and pressure of the Great Depression and the nation’s response to that challenge helped forge the courage…
Charlie Camosy Every convert’s path to the Catholic faith is unique, and some come to the Church through more winding paths than others. Jeffrey L. Morrow, currently a professor of theology at Seton Hall University’s Immaculate Conception Seminary School of Theology (ICSST), recently spoke about his journey from Judaism to Christianity to Catholicism and what…