The formal opening of the North American College took place on this day in the Via dell’Umiltà in a former Dominican-Visitation convent dating back to 1598. The American bishops had been sending students to Rome since 1790, and Blessed Pope Pius IX wanted them to establish a national college such as other nationalities had (e.g., the German College, the Scots College, etc.) The idea behind the college was to strengthen the theological education of the clergy and bind American Catholics... Read more

Rev. Walter Ciszek, S.J. was a Polish-American Jesuit priest known for his clandestine missionary work in the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1963. Fifteen of these years were spent in confinement and hard labor in the GULAG, including five in Moscow‘s infamous Lubyanka prison. He was released and returned to the United States in 1963, after which he wrote two books, including the memoir With God in Russia, and served as a spiritual director. Since 1990, Ciszek has been under... Read more

In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pope Blessed Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin.” Check out this clip from Youtube: (From the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia) Read more

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The Incarnation is not an event; but an institution. What Jesus once took up He never laid down.Vincent McNabb, O.P., Thoughts Twice-dyed Read more

Thomas H. O’Connor’s book Boston Catholics is a rich history of New England Catholicism replete with anecdotes and illustrations. No one is better qualified to write such a book, as O’Connor taught history at Boston College for several decades and knows the Boston scene intimately. This is a good read! Read more

On this day in 1800, Father Leonard Neale was ordained an Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Baltimore. The Bishop, John Carroll, was ordained in England, which made Neale the first Roman Catholic Bishop ordained in the United States. Born in Maryland, Neale joined the Jesuits and was ordained in 1773, just before the order was suppressed. Neale taught in collages and ministered in parishes on the continent before returning to America as a secular priest in 1783. After working... Read more

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TRYSTE NOELBy Louise Imogen GuineyThe Ox he openeth wide the doore,And from the snow he calls her inne,And he hath seen her smile therefore,Our Ladye without sinne.Now soon from SleepA Starre shall leap, And soon arrive both King and Hinde:Amen, Amen:But O the place co’d I but finde! The Ox hushed his voice and bentTrewe eyes of pity ore the Mow,And on his lovelie Neck, forspent,The Blessed layes her browe.Around her feet,Full Warme and Sweete,His bowerie Breath doth meeklie dwell:Amen,... Read more

To us Christians, the first Christmas Day is the solstice or bottle-neck of history. Things got worse till then, ever since we had lost Paradise; things are to get better since then, till we reach Paradise once more. History is shaped like an X. Ronald Knox, Stimuli Read more