When will these people learn that not all conservatives are Wal-Mart shoppers with a gun rack in their pick up? Read more

Hearing confessions is not easy. Its actually hard, often tiresome work. Read more

Some time ago I got an anonymous email which said something like, “Get over the idea that there is such a thing as sin. Sin is a stupid idea made up by religious people like you to fleece people of their money and scare them about hell. People like you are evil and wicked and should be stopped.” It was, of course, ironic that the writer did not believe in sin, but he clearly believed in evil. Furthermore, he was... Read more

Today’s first reading at Mass was the story of Jacob’s Ladder. You remember the one–where he is traveling and he camps out by a shrine and take a rock from the shrine as a pillow? He dreams of a stairway to heaven with angels going up and down. He wakes up and calls the place “Bethel”–the threshold of heaven. The story is interesting on several levels. Firstly, it is an insight into the primitive religions of the ancient world. Here... Read more

Any kid in a half decent confirmation class will be able to tell you that all sin is not the same. Read more

The simple message is, "Look to yourself and your own sins first." Read more

From time to time one hears from the progressives that “doctrine is divisive”. We’re to have “a pastoral approach” and not speak about doctrine and discipline in the church. This is a lie, and not even a very smart one, and yet it is amazing how many people fall for it. Rather than doctrine and discipline being divisive they are actually unifying, and you can see how they are unifying with a simple analogy. What is doctrine and discipline anyway?... Read more

Why was St John Fisher–the holy Bishop of Rochester– the only English bishop to stand up to Henry VIII? It is easy, with hindsight, to dismiss the other English bishops as cowards and compromisers. However it is not so easy. Consider the circumstances. First of all, they were in a completely new situation. Europe had been Catholic forever. The idea that a national monarch could and would break permanently with the Pope was simply unthinkable. The situation as it finally... Read more

A Fluffernutter Catholic is one who combines sweet fluffy sentimentality with a certain nutty-ness in their opinions.... Read more