A few weeks ago I was asked by my friend, Msgr. Kieran Harrington to appear on his radio talk show In The Arena.   Msgr Kieran is Vicar for Communications for the Diocese of Brooklyn. He also serves as the President and Chairman of DeSales Media Group, a full-service media company that includes NET NY, a cable television station.  DeSales has been and continues to be a leader in church communications.  There are few that do it better.  Here below is... Read more

I came across this great picture from 2001, from Pentecost Sunday, when I was confirmed.  I am pictured immediately following the Mass with Sister Margaret Quinn, CSJ. She was the person that prepared me for confirmation, one on one.  I think in a lot of ways, she also prepared me for ordination many years later too.  After finding this picture and thinking about Sister Margaret I decided to find out where she was now.  I came across this article from... Read more

Some three years ago, we seminarians in Huntington threw a party for the surprise election of then-Archbishop Dolan as the president of the USCCB.  As far as excuses go for throwing a party, it was a pretty good one!  There was food, prosecco to toast the new Prez, Häagen-Dazs ice cream and Dunkin Donuts – the last two are items Dolan said he would make available at the conference meetings thereafter! Here is the poster we made to advertise the party... Read more

Fr. Dan Horan, for whom I have tremendous respect, has written a new article for America magazine titled “Lead us not into clericalism.”  It’s well written and I agree with most of it.  Pope Francis himself, as Fr. Dan points out, has condemned clericalism.  I do, too.  There is no place in the Church for a priest or bishop or any cleric for that matter to think of himself as better or above the people that he serves. Fr. Dan... Read more

Andrew Sullivan is a popular blogger and commentator with whom I find myself disagreeing at times.  Recently though, I have been moved by his comments and expressions of admiration for Pope Francis.  Today, he wrote a post about being Christian vs. Christianist.  Make sure to go read the entire post.  Below are two quotes that I found myself thinking about this evening. He said: I do not believe that adherence to doctrinal lines makes one a Christianist. A Christianist, like... Read more

  Justice Antonin Scalia sat for an interview with nymag.com.  The result is some of the most entertaining reading I’ve done in a long time.  Justice Scalia, whose son is a Priest speaks at length about his Catholic faith.  He speaks in a delightful tone and with remarkable clarity on the faith.  see below the excerpts of the portions of the interview dealing with the Church: What do you make of the new pope? He’s the Vicar of Christ. He’s... Read more

Today is a favorite feast day of mine.  I took Francis as my confirmation name back in 2001 and have always had a special devotion.  I was thrilled to be able to bless the animals at my parish this afternoon. We had a great turn out, almost double of last year.  We saw birds, some cats and many dogs. After saying a Hail Mary for Pope Francis on his name day I said the blessing and then sprinkled all the... Read more

Take a look at this remarkably powerful conversion story and testimony to the goodness of God’s mercy found in the confessional.  The mountainscape makes me think of Blessed John Paul II as a young priest. The story: In the proposition of a 21st century life’s journey, how often do we Americans stop to appreciate a physical challenge and adventure? The first obstacle for Father John Nepil’s high school days was in fact over activism, a physical challenge in the Denver... Read more

My blogging neighbor, Leah Libresco sets out to review Gary Wills’ book on the priesthood “Why Priests? A Failed Tradition”.  I haven’t read the book, But I’ve heard enough about it and him to know that I don’t want to. Leah addresses Wills’ critique of vestments: A priest doesn’t vest to draw attention to himself, but to what he does. In vestments, priests become a little anonymous. The sacraments work ex opere operato, from the work done, not the merits of... Read more