This is my second homily for this weekend. My homily for the RCIA scrutiny is here.  + In the tiny Latin American country of Paraguay, there is a town literally built on a garbage dump, named Cateura. Poverty and filth are everywhere. Three years ago, Bob Simon of “60 Minutes” went there and described trash as the city’s only crop—a crop, he said, whose harvest lasts 12 months out of the year. People known as the Trash Pickers sift through... Read more

From the vault:  It can’t be easy living with a deacon, especially now. Every year, for a few weeks before Easter, the deacon pulls out sheet music and starts practicing that Everest of liturgical song, the Exsultet:  a nine-minute a capella chant sung in near-darkness at the start of the Easter Vigil. Around our home, the Exsultet is the Muzak of our lives.  It’s everywhere. I warble snatches of it constantly.  My wife, saint that she is, has become politely... Read more

This is the first of two homilies I’m preparing for this weekend. It is tied to the Year A readings used for RCIA scrutinies.  + It may be one of the great unsolved mysteries of the New Testament—a question that no one can answer. What ever happened to Lazarus? After this extraordinary miracle, what did he do? Legends about him have sprung up. Some traditions hold that he left Judea and settled in Cyprus, where he eventually became a bishop. The Orthodox... Read more

It happened in Omaha: On the first morning of the 31st annual Cathedral Flower Festival, with its theme of “A Night at the Movies,” an agitated church custodian made a bold move. Mark Kenney, 59, who grew up in the parish, had worked at St. Cecilia Cathedral for three years. Around 8 a.m. on Jan. 29, he went to a work shed, picked up a pair of heavy-duty bolt cutters and ascended to a catwalk high above the mostly empty... Read more

A reminder from the Diocese of Brooklyn, above. Details: The Diocese of Brooklyn, in partnership with the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Rockville Centre, is launching its annual Lenten campaign to promote the Sacrament of Confession. On the Monday of Holy Week, which falls on March 21 this year, churches in the greater New York City area, New York’s upper counties and on Long Island will be open for confession from 3 p.m. through 9 p.m. This initiative,... Read more

From Peggy Noonan’s sweet and tender remembrance of the former First Lady: One day at dusk in November 2013 we were talking quietly as I held her hand at her bedside. She began to talk about Ronnie and how even now he was ever-present to her. Then: “I didn’t believe in the afterlife. I never believed in it, but things have happened since Ronnie died. He visits me.” “You mean you dream of him,” I said. She got a quizzical look. “I... Read more

Aleteia’s Zoe Romanowsky interviewed Msgr. Charles Pope from the Archdiocese of Washington and heard a priest’s perspective on taking part in the Sacrament of Reconciliation: Msgr. Pope, do you remember hearing your first confession? What was it like?  I do remember. In the parish setting, anyway — someone may have asked me to hear confession before I got to the parish. But sitting in the confessional for the first time was memorable because there were some problems with the confessional.... Read more