Best Practices in Evangelization = Unintended Lesson in Homelessness

Last updated on: September 6, 2019 at 8:02 am By Jennifer Fitz

Here’s an article on a fantastic initiative in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, in which dedicated missionaries are truly evangelizing, brother-to-brother, the homeless near the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption. Read it and take notes. This is what evangelization should be. (Happy feast day, Mother Theresa!) *** Now catch one detail: Father Boric has plans to recruit a couple more missionaries. While FOCUS missionaries generally must raise about $30,000 a year to cover their expenses, he wants to be... Read more

Labor Day Reading (Free Book): Learn to Tell the Story of You and Jesus

Last updated on: August 30, 2019 at 1:04 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Your story is important. How important? Way back when the Internet first got going, what exploded on the scene was the listserv. Pick a topic, any topic, and there was a group you could join to meet other people who wanted to talk about that thing. The more personal the more likely it flourished. It was revolutionary: You who felt so alone with your rare disease or your arcane hobby or your intractable problem suddenly discovered, “I’m not the only one!” ... Read more

Need Your Help: Stories of Equal Access

Last updated on: May 15, 2019 at 5:13 am By Jennifer Fitz

I need your help with getting a door unlocked. I’m a parishioner (and at last check parish council member) at a large and historically-significant parish. Thanks to renovations over the years, there are three wheelchair-accessible entrances feeding the parish church. Unfortunately, since November of 2017 all three of those doors have been locked. The only way to get into the building during Sunday Mass or Saturday Confession is to either walk up a short flight of stairs (seven if I... Read more

To My Child’s Pro-Choice Friend

Last updated on: May 11, 2019 at 3:41 pm By Jennifer Fitz

Dear Young Person I’ve Watched Grow Up, I want to tell you today about a thing that happened before you were born. Way back when I was your age, I was pretty much anti-abortion. Many of my friends, like you, were pro-choice. Sometimes we’d debate, because teens and college students like to discuss important issues and take a stand. One time early in college, a friend asked me to drop her off downtown for an appointment, which was a normal... Read more

The Cruel Selfishness of Rebuilding Notre Dame?

Last updated on: April 18, 2019 at 4:20 pm By Jennifer Fitz

In the aftermath of the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France, several wealthy donors have stepped forward to fund a sizable portion of the rebuilding project. While this generosity is inspiring for some and consoling for others, it has also spurred harsh criticism: If you really loved Jesus, you’d spend that money on the poor. How can anyone in good conscience devote so much wealth to such a vain pursuit? It is a valid question, and one I’d... Read more

Dear Gay Catholic Priests,

Last updated on: February 18, 2019 at 10:33 am By Jennifer Fitz

I’ve been reading about your plight in the New York Times. So let’s go ahead and clear something up right now: Most Catholics don’t give a rip who it is you’re not having sex with. We know that abstinence is hard. Those of us practicing NFP probably don’t have a ton of sympathy for you, because at least you aren’t obliged to spend all night lying in bed next to the person you’re not having sex with, but when we can get... Read more

Why Yes, I’m Still Catholic

Last updated on: September 13, 2018 at 4:13 am By Jennifer Fitz

Some things that happened this summer: (1) We discovered our bishops cannot be trusted with even the smallest things, like the health and moral formation of seminarians. (2) My son went to France with the clear instruction that in exchange for my part in making his trip possible, he was to stop at Gibert Joseph and pick us up some good used books to share. He brought me home Dans le Secret des Borgia. All things old are new again. (3) I... Read more

The Implications of Not Using the Death Penalty

Last updated on: August 9, 2018 at 2:12 pm By Jennifer Fitz

In all the excitement of every bishop in the world’s credibility imploding in one fell swoop, I haven’t gotten in on the death penalty conversation. I’m going to the leave the theology at this: I believe in the hermeneutic of continuity. We read the new in light of the old, and therefore a valid reading will take into count the compendium of centuries of thinking on this topic. Nothing to be afraid of here. But of course the Catechism is meant... Read more

Fisking Cardinal DiNardo: USCCB Unclear on the Concept

Last updated on: August 2, 2018 at 11:02 am By Jennifer Fitz

Happy August! For our entertainment, the USCCB has issued a fresh statement on the terrible, no-good, very-bad ex-Cardinal McCarrick. Below is Cardinal DiNardo’s statement in full, annotated. Let’s see how things are coming: “The accusations against Archbishop Theodore McCarrick reveal a grievous moral failure within the Church. They cause bishops anger, sadness, and shame; I know they do in me. Wonderful. We have to start somewhere. They compel bishops to ask, as I do, what more could have been done... Read more

Solved: The Case of the Disappearing Young Adults

Last updated on: August 2, 2018 at 2:24 am By Jennifer Fitz

I have often wondered why something so simple as getting young adults engaged in parish life is such a mystery to the Church. (I am not speaking of the problem of young people leaving the church by the age of twenty, which is a different problem.) In my present parish, getting the young adults involved and active in parish life has taken a little time under the new pastor’s leadership, but it’s not rocket science: Do the Catholic + Give... Read more