How would you advise this person: He is a mature, intelligent and well read non Catholic Christian. He understands the Catholic faith better than most Catholics. He is attracted to the Catholic faith. He is frustrated and fed up with his experiences in Protestant Christianity. However, he still has difficulties over some doctrines and disciplines of the Church. For the sake of argument, let’s say he has trouble with HumaneVitae and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. He doesn’t actually... Read more

As I prepare for ordination to the priesthood later this week the most commonly asked question is, “How is your family coping?” The reply is that the children have several questions…”What do we call you? Father Father?” Or “Do we have to go to you for confession?” Answer, “Probably not. I’d say, ‘I think you forgot something…'” or “When we’re on vacation could you just say Mass for us on the picnic table so we don’t have to go to... Read more

About ten years ago I threw out a message in a bottle. Well, it was really a message on an internet religious chat room. “Were there any Bob Jones graduates out there who wanted to talk.” An old college friend, David Gustafson, got in touch. We started emailing about religion. By this time I had just become Catholic and David was finding himself disenchanted with the Evangelical church he was attending. From there we engaged in very long email discussions... Read more

We were so busy at school today I forgot about the tradition of the boy bishop. It is connected with St Nicholas’ feast on 6 December. St Nicholas resurrected three boys who had been butchered and the evil butcher had put them in a barrel to pickle their flesh. Thus St Nicholas of Myra is the special patron saint of boys. In honor of this, especially in England, a boy would be elected to be bishop or abbot for the... Read more

Tune in to Al Kresta in the Afternoon on Friday. I’ll be interviewed about the state of Anglicanism, my journey to the Catholic Church and my upcoming ordination. Read more

I found this snap over on Shrine of the Holy Whapping. Captions anyone? Here’s mine: “It’s a bird, It’s a plane, it’s the second coming….” Read more

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii records a priest’s out of body experience. He claims to have made a visit to Heaven and Hell. As Esther explains, nothing in this private vision contradicts church teaching. Even if it is inauthentic it sobers one up at the beginning of Advent. Read more

The bitter battles in the Anglican communion continue. Since September eight ECUSA dioceses have rejected the leadership of Kate Schori and asked for ADO (Alternative Episcopal Oversight). The Dioceses are Dallas, Central Florida, Fort Worth, Fresno, San Joaquin, Pittsburgh, Quincy, Springfield and South Carolina. In other developments, individual clergy and parishes across the country are seeking ways to pull out of their dioceses. Among others, the large, ancient, wealthy and influential parishes of Falls Church and Truro are thinking about... Read more

Here’s a Newman quote for you: If Christianity is both social and dogmatic, and intended for all ages, it must, humanly speaking, have an infallible expounder, else you will secure unity of form at the loss of unity of doctrine, or unity of doctrine at the lost of unity of form you will have to choose between a comprehension of opinions and a resolution into parties—between latitudinarian and sectarian error.Read it a couple of times. It’s dynamite. Read more

I met Paul Lew at a Youth2000 conference in England a few years ago. He was a smart young Catholic who already had a college degree, and he had just been asked to leave seminary in England because he was ‘too rigid.’ Paul went out to work in the Phillipines with the poor, met some Dominicans and decided to join them. He’s now at Oxford as Fra Lawrence…he’s one of the guys who has started a great new blog called... Read more