If you’re feeling tired this Sunday morning, it may be for other reasons besides the heat. According to a recent survey, the average American works 47 hours a week. But that’s just for starters. Eleven percent of those surveyed worked 41-49 hours, 21 percent put in 50-59 hours every week, and a whole 18 percent work 60 or more hours. That means that almost exactly 50 percent of full time workers log more than 40 hours every week. On top... Read more
I’m pleased to share with you a great travel opportunity coming up this winter, involving my friends Deacon Bill Ditewig and Deacon Tim Kennedy. Deacon Tim is launching a tour and pilgrimage agency focusing on religious trips. In January, he is offering a tour of the Holy Land, geared specifically to deacons and their wives, with Deacon Bill Ditewig. How can you resist that? Details can be found at this link. If you’ve never been to the Holy Land, this... Read more
A few people have picked up on it, and The Charlotte Observer has details: The controversial “send her back” crowd chant at President Donald Trump’s North Carolina rally may have gotten all the headlines, but some Christians are grumbling over something most of the media completely ignored. Trump cursed, and it was not just a few vulgarities. He took the Lord’s name in vain. Twice. One state senator in West Virginia was so offended that he sent a letter of... Read more
Temps are surging toward 100 in some parts of the country, and that’s prompted church officials in at least one archdiocese to act. From The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori is advising area Catholics that they are excused from their obligation to attend Mass this weekend because of predicted high temperatures that could pose health risks to parishioners, particularly the elderly. Lori said in a statement that with temperatures expected to top 100 degrees, the archdiocese has decided... Read more
The esteemed cardinal is about to mark the 50th anniversary of his ordination, and gave an interview to Rome Reports. Check it out below. Read more
From CNN: You know things are bad in Congress when the chaplain’s morning prayer on the House floor sounds like an exorcism. On Thursday, the Rev. Patrick Conroy told members of Congress it has been a “difficult and contentious week in which darker spirits seem to have been at play in the people’s house.” “In Your most holy name, I now cast out all spirits of darkness from this chamber, spirits not from You,” continued Conroy, a Jesuit priest who... Read more
A priest in Salt Lake City, Father Martin Diaz, speaks for a lot of us in this piece for Intermountain Catholic: Scheduling can be the most difficult part of preparing a couple for their wedding. Often, when the couple finds a reception site they like, they book a date and then call the parish to book the church. If the church is not available they go back to the reception site, only to find that the day the church is... Read more
God love him. What a life. Thanks to Deacon Jim Miles in the Diocese of Lansing for sending this along. The obit: Louis Urban Weitzel, 99, passed away July 15, 2019. He was born on May 18, 1920, in Delphi, Indiana to John and Mary (Schmitter) Weitzel. Louis married the love of his life Kathleen McCarthy on March 14, 1943 in Casper, Wyoming. He served in the Canadian Royal Air Force and then transferred to the U.S. Air Force serving honorably... Read more
This story in The New York Times utilizes some superb reporting and great multimedia interactive material to help tell the story of what happened the night Notre-Dame burned —and recounts, in dramatic detail, how close the world came to losing this icon forever: What happened over four hours that night changed Paris. The cathedral — a soaring medieval structure that has captured the hearts of believer and nonbeliever alike for 850 years — was ravaged. Today three jagged openings mar... Read more
In the fall of 2018, the United States Catholic bishops issued a document entitled “Open Wide Our Hearts” which looks at the issue of racism in the wake of the tragedy in Charlottesville. And it begins with a definition of the sin of racism: Racism arises when—either consciously or unconsciously—a person holds that his or her own race or ethnicity is superior, and therefore judges persons of other races or ethnicities as inferior and unworthy of equal regard. When this... Read more
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