Here is my piece for National Catholic Register for All Saints Day and All Souls Day. In ministering as a Catholic priest, I sometimes get the impression that Catholics are more interested in the minimum than the maximum. What I mean is that too many Catholics seem to have heard that what is required to be a good Catholic is to go to Mass once a week and confession once a year. That’s it. Therefore, they do their duty. They... Read more

Tonight at RCIA the question came up, “What does the Church teach about ghosts? This article is a good, detailed teaching on the Catholic understanding of ghosts and departed spirits. “There is no settled doctrinal or moral practice with respect to ghosts or apparitions,” says Lawrence Cunningham, professor emeritus of theology at the University of Notre Dame. “You can’t point to a canon in ecumenical councils or canon law that addresses this.” When it comes to the paranormal, the church walks... Read more

Did you know that David Suchet, who plays the detective Hercule Poirot, is a convert to Christianity? In this interview he recounts his conversion: He was brought up a non-orthodox Jew but had been dabbling in new age philosophies. At the end of a day’s filming, Suchet picked up the Bible in his hotel room and started to read St Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (He has since made a television documentary about St Paul.) “I read it as a... Read more

The Anchoress muses here about the mystery of human love and how it reflects Divine Love. when our relationships are healthy and honest and authentic — we cannot help but model God to each other. The crunch point is the realization that in a true love you give up the other person, you do not cling to them. To truly love that person you have to be willing to let them go. You have to love your kids enough to... Read more

I was doing some research on the self help industry and listened to some tapes by a guy who said his recipe for self esteem was to look in the mirror and repeat like a mantra, “I like myself, I like myself, I like myself.” I thought if he needed that much convincing then building self esteem was probably a lost cause. To stand things on their head the fact of the matter is that saying “Have mercy on me... Read more

The ancient idea of a parish community was that it was coterminous with the geographical parish. Village people lived around the village church and the community of families also comprised the community of faith. No more. At least not in America. Instead, with the suburban motorcar-driven society we church shop. Furthermore, there are plenty of Catholic shops on offer. In our town, for instance we have one church which offers traditional liturgy influenced heavily by the Anglican tradition–beautiful building, excellent... Read more

As Pope Francis suspends a German bishop for his lavish spending, I got a call from the BBC World Service asking me to comment on the situation. I’m traveling today so can’t be on the radio, but here’s my take on it. First of all, the clergy are not all called to vows of poverty, but we are all called to a life of “apostolic simplicity.” The way I understand apostolic simplicity is that we have all that we need... Read more

Michael Sean Winters at the National Catholic Recorder has registered dismay at the tone of my article criticizing Huffington Post columnist Cara McDonogh. The language, it is said, was too tough and I was too angry.  When confronted with a fellow Catholic whose opinions a priest finds disturbing, I think the appropriate tone is one more of sadness than of anger for a priest. Really? What Would Jesus Do? I mentioned in the combox that he wasn’t always “gentle Jesus... Read more