The Jewish nation cited movingly by Isaiah in this coming Sunday’s Old Testament reading is lost in self-pity. Tormented by their stronger neighbors – Assyria, Babylon, Egypt – they … more

Few fictional characters are more woeful than the rural French pastor in Georges Bernanos’ “The Diary of a Country Priest.” Distant from his flock, scorned by the local nobility, bullied by … more

The ancient Jews cannot be chided too much for their shabby attitude toward foreigners. These ancient Jews had endured four hundred years of slavery under their Egyptian neighbors to the South. Their … more

St. Athanasius (293 A.D. – 373 A.D.) was bishop of Alexandria, Egypt, and a noted Eastern Christian leader of the 4th century. He is remembered especially for his role in the conflict with … more

The Blessed Virgin Mary, honored especially during this month of October as Our Lady of the Rosary, has been integral to the Christian experience since the angel Gabriel appeared to her in Nazareth more than 2,000 years ago. more

Very Reverend Monsignor Charles H. Lynch was a native of St. Charles Borromeo parish in Woonsocket and a close friend of my family. While my mother was attending Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in Providence, “Charlie” Lynch was attending LaSalle Academy. more

A bishop on the West Coast entertains his candidates for Holy Orders by regaling them with tales about his dealing with other bishops and then informs the candidates that he would not be surprised to … more

Perhaps the most ancient representations of Jesus Christ portray him as the Good Shepherd. more

It is often reported that young adults don’t go to church, don’t marry and don’t vote. Any pastor can relate that young people disappear shortly after their Confirmation and return when it is time to get married or, more likely today, when they want their first baby baptized. The latest Pew Survey found that while church attendance is off, generally “the main reason for the decrease was due to millennials (18 to 35 year olds) leaving the church.” Pew researchers offer a similar bleak statistic regarding marriage: “If current trends continue, 25% of young adults in the most recent cohort (ages 25 to 34 in 2010) will have never married by 2030. That would be the highest share in modern history.” And the data from the US Census Bureau on voting is not much more encouraging: “In every U.S. presidential election from 1964 on, 18 to 24-year-olds voted at lower rates than all other age groups. In contrast, Americans 65 and older have voted at higher rates than all other age groups since the 1996 election.” more

Students of Scripture have lately thought that the narrative of the woman caught in adultery belongs more in one of the Synoptic Gospels, maybe St. Luke, than in the Gospel account of St. John. more

“God has strange ways of sweeping his threshing floor,” was how St. John Vianney summed up France’s revolutionary years and their tumultuous effects on the Church. Recent productions of the musical drama “Les Miserables” at the Ocean State Theatre in Warwick and the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket have reminded Rhode Islanders of the tempestuous times in France during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. more

The Gospel according to St. Luke has rightly been characterized as the Gospel of Mercy. And no better evidence is needed than the three Lucan parables to be proclaimed at Mass this coming Sunday. … more

Continued from last week’s column Unless there is a problem with impotency, a husband is always fertile. Men are capable of engendering children from their teenage years until death. more

Worshippers around the Catholic world will be greeted by rows of tulips, banks of daffodils, clusters of hydrangeas and a garden of lilies as they gather for Mass this Easter holy day. more

One Fox News commentator has unkindly, but unsurprisingly written, “Pope Francis makes lots of noise about the poor, and the liberal media fawn over him at every occasion.” Indeed, the publication of Pope Francis’ first exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel,” gave the pope’s liberal enthusiasts great delight and the pope’s conservative critics much displeasure. In the document, Francis says that “the powerful feed on the powerless” in a free market economy, and that those who engage in the market become “incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor.” He says the “culture of prosperity deadens us.” The commentator then observes, “Yet it is those evil capitalist Catholics who pay for the churches, fund the hospitals, the schools, the soup kitchens and everything else that allows the church to actually help the poor.” Indeed, the writer has a point. more

The celebration of the dutiful wife from the Old Testament Book of Proverbs is the first reading at Mass this coming Sunday. The much appreciated woman is hailed both for her spousal support as well as her practical shrewdness: “Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize. more

The 20th century was not kind to Europe’s kings, emperors and monarchs. World War I occasioned the end of the Kaiser in Germany, the Czar in Russia and the Emperor in Austria-Hungary. During the century, Portugal, Greece, Italy and the Balkan nations lost their royal rulers. The Spanish royal family was happily restored mid-century by the graciousness of Franco. more

The solemnity of the Epiphany celebrates three events in the early life of Jesus Christ. Shortly after Christ’s birth, as St. Matthew notes, the wise men from the East arrived to offer the newborn King of the Jews their threefold gifts. more

Baruch 5:1-9; Psalm: 126:1-6; Philippians 1:4-6, 8-11; and Gospel: Luke 3:1-6 more

Little did Adam and Eve think that their initial disobedience would have worldwide repercussions. First, their son Cain sadly follows their bad example and slays his brother Abel out of envy. Then, … more