Details:  Parishioners at several New Jersey churches are distraught about a string of creche crimes: the theft of baby Jesus statues. Statues of the infant have been taken from five churches since Christmas Eve, according to the Archdiocese of Newark. Parishioners at St. Clare Church in Clifton reacted with dismay Sunday after a baby Jesus statue was apparently stolen from the church’s outdoors nativity scene overnight. The statue disappeared between 7 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. Sunday, according to Father... Read more

A happy hoopster is gone:  Meadowlark Lemon, who became known as the “Clown Prince of Basketball” during a run of more than two decades as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters, died Sunday. He was 83. Lemon’s death was first reported by The New York Times, who cited his wife, Cynthia. A North Carolina native born Meadow Lemon III, Lemon recalled making his first basketball hoop out of an onion sack and a coat hanger and using an empty can... Read more

We visit here almost every year at Christmastime; my wife and I were married in the tiny chapel next door, the original St. Mary’s, 29 years ago. The new church (a.k.a. The Space Ship) has some stunning stained glass windows, illustrating moments from Mary’s life, and it always feels a little like a homecoming. [img attachment=”85530″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”IMG_4297″ /]   [img attachment=”85521″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”IMG_4283″ /]   [img attachment=”85522″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”IMG_4284″ /]   [img attachment=”85523″ align=”aligncenter” size=”full” alt=”IMG_4286″... Read more

From today’s homily: Fathers, mothers and children together go to the house of the Lord, in order to sanctify the holy day with prayer. It is an important teaching, which is meant for our own families as well. Indeed, we could say that family life is a series of pilgrimages, both small and big. For example, how comforting it is for us to reflect on Mary and Joseph teaching Jesus how to pray! This is a sort of pilgrimage, the... Read more

You may remember this item from earlier this month. Now there’s this, from Air Force Times:  Air Force Academy football players have a right to pray publicly before games, an academy athletic department review has found. “The United States Air Force Academy places a high value on the rights of its members to observe the tenets of their respective religion or to observe no religion at all,” academy officials said in a statement on Wednesday.  “Recently the United States Air... Read more

From the vault: my homily for the Feast of the Holy Family in 2012. + I’m struck every year by the timing of this feast, celebrating the Holy Family. It comes on the first Sunday following Christmas, when a lot of us have started to overdose on family.  In fact, after the parties and cooking and visiting and obligations and expectations and disappointments, some of us have had about as much “family” as we can take. Parents are wondering when... Read more

That popular bit of folklore pops up every year around this time, to wit: The songs gifts are hidden meanings to the teachings of the faith. The “true love” mentioned in the song doesn’t refer to an earthly suitor, it refers to God Himself. The “me” who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge which... Read more

Wow:  Nuns based in Nashville, Tennessee have come to the rescue of the Dominican Church in Limerick, which they are to keep open, despite the fact that the Order announced it was withdrawing from the city. The religious tide has been turned and St Saviour’s Church, Glentworth Street, will remain open and keep an 800-year association with Limerick intact, thanks to the Dominican Sisters of St Cecilia, who will take over the priory in the city and breathe new life into... Read more