Today marks the death of James Michael Curley, a Massachusetts politician who held nearly every major political office in the state.Born in Boston, he attended the city’s public schools before embarking upon a political career. In 1899 he was elected to the Boston Common Council, and held a number of local offices thereafter. A champion of the poor and the immigrants, he was jailed in 1904 because he took a civil service exam for a friend. In 1910, he was... Read more

This cartoon appeared in the pages of The Tablet in 1918. Read more

Too late I loved Thee, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! And lo! Thou wert within, and I abroad searching for Thee. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee. St. Augustine, Confessions Read more

A Thomas Nast cartoon from the 1870’s. Read more

Born to a family of Bulgarian Latin Rite Catholics, Vincent Bossilkov joined the Passionists at age 14. The Passionists had been present in Bulgaria since 1781. Vincent studied in the various Passionist houses in Holland and Belgium and took the religious name Eugene. He professed his vows in 1920 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1926. He returned to Bulgaria in 1924 and pursued further theological studies. He took up a post as parish priest in the Danube valley.... Read more

On this day in 1961, Pope Blessed John XXIII issued the encyclical Aeterna Dei Sapientia, on the Eternal Wisdom of God and Pope Leo I. Read more

On November 11, 1858, the first Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth arrived at the Leavenworth Landing after an icy trip up the Missouri River. It was 1857 when a small congregation of Sisters in Nashville, Tenn., suddenly found themselves burdened with a debt not of their making. They sold nearly everything they had to pay their creditors, and a plucky handful of Sisters headed for the Indian Territory of Kansas. Mother Xavier Ross was the leader of the little band... Read more

Immigration of Maronite faithful from the Middle East to the United States began during the latter part of the nineteenth century. When the faithful were able to obtain a priest, communities were established as parishes under the jurisdiction of the local Latin bishops. Pope Paul VI, with the apostolic constitution Cum supremi of January 10, 1966, established the Maronite Apostolic Esarchate for the Maronite faithful of the United States. The Most Reverend Francis Mansour Zayek, a bishop since 1962, was... Read more

On this day in 1889 began the first lay congress in the history of the Catholic Church. The inspiration for the congress came from Henry Brownson, the son of Catholic intellectual Orestes A. Brownson, who had been impressed with the lay congresses held in Belgium and Germany. On the day before the opening of the congress, Archbishop John Ireland of Minnesota announced that laypeople “have a special vocation.” Among the topics discussed at the congress was that of “lay action... Read more

Born near Dublin, as a young woman Catherine McAuley sought to provide solace to sick and needy families, to train young girls for employment and to instruct poor children. When she was 25, a retired Quaker couple invited her to live with them. Catherine proved to be a loving companion and holy example to them. On their death beds, they converted to Catholicism, and bequeathed their estate to her. With this inheritance, Catherine built a house on Baggot Street in... Read more