A post a few days back in which I tore into a ridiculous article on Huggington Post by a “Catholic” who doesn’t go to Mass, supports abortion and thinks same sex unions and Planned Parenthood has raised a few hackles in the combox. The commenters say I shouldn’t have judged the poor girl who wrote the article and that I am out of line for deciding “who is a Catholic and who isn’t.” The comments express  the usual passive aggressive... Read more

Some atheist comedians have started up an “atheist church” in England. They want to get people together to do good in the world and help people  “live this one life to the fullest.” Critics and fans alike colloquially refer to the organization as an atheist church, but the founders prefer to think of their group as “the best bits of church, but with no religion, and super pop tunes.” Sermons can include anything from a “reading from Alice in Wonderland... Read more

All the best answers are simple even if they are not easy. St Theresa of Avila reminds us that the path to perfection is simple: love Jesus. Many, many times I have perceived this through experience. The Lord has told it to me. I have definitely seen that we must enter by this gate if we wish his Sovereign Majesty to reveal to us great and hidden mysteries. A person should desire no other path, even if he is at... Read more

Some time ago a reader jumped into the combox and accused me of being “an old bald angry guy.” I liked that. It mad me real mad. Grrrr! In fact the anger thing is very interesting. I like that Scripture verse, “Be angry, but sin not.” Now there’s a pithy bit of wisdom if ever there was one! That’s one of my favorite verses in the Bible. I guess it’s because I’ve seen the damage that suppressed anger does in... Read more

Are priests too consumed with their own power, prestige and importance? Deacon Kandra gathers the differing views on clericalism that are generating discussion on his blog here. The talk got started with an article by a Franciscan friar called Fr Horan Lead Us Not Into Clericalism which made some snippy remarks about the breed of younger priests who seem overly concerned with fancy vestments and all the trappings of traditionalist religion. Fr John Trigilio gives a robust reply–re published at Deacon Kandra’s... Read more

News today of yet another Catholic priest caught with his pants down. Last week a priest in Pennsylvania in a car with a fifteen year old boy he’d contacted through Craigslist. The priest gave the pitiful reply, “But I asked him three times if he was eighteen.” Then in Newark a priest is busted sending explicit texts to young guys. Now in Cleveland a 68 year old priest is caught soliciting sex from an undercover cop. In addition to his... Read more

As pastor of a church dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, I found today’s Marian celebration in Rome very moving. Rocco Palma reports on it here–giving the text of the Holy Father’s meditation on Mary on Saturday, his homily at Mass today and links to Saturday’s papal teaching on women. An interesting side line is that the mainstream media is strangely silent about this Pope when his teaching is clearly traditional Catholic content. The most I could find on... Read more

Frida Berrigan at the Huffington Post tells us what it was like growing up in a groovy Catholic Church: For starters, there was no rosary involved. Eucharist of watered down wine and old bread was shared around a circle in the living room, consecrated by whoever was “up” that week and shared by agnostics, atheists, Jews and even some Catholics (but it had been a long time since their last confession). It was pretty informal, but I recall that our... Read more

When I visited India in the mid 1980s I had the chance to visit a leper colony run by the Missionaries of Charity. It was a good chance to learn about leprosy and understand the meaning of this horrible disease and why it features so significantly in the Scriptures. The gospel stories always carry several levels of meaning, and this weekend’s stories of lepers being healed are no exception. Leprosy– or Hansen’s Disease– is in infection that damages the nerve... Read more