The trouble with post-Vatican II Catholicism is that it doesn't leave many free evenings. Oscar Wilde first made this remark about socialism and Richard John Neuhaus has wisely applied it our … more

Somewhere within his voluminous works, Benedictine Dom Aelred Graham, prior at Portsmouth Priory during the 1950s and 60s, wrote tersely and perceptively, “God’s justice is subordinate to his mercy.” more

Columnist Joseph Pronechen writing for the National Catholic Register has compiled some interesting data on the three Fatima children whose meetings with the virgin Mary will be commemorated by a … more

Many worthy words of Jesus Christ have become part of daily conversations without the speaker even being aware of their sacred origin. References to turning the “other cheek” and going … more

Guess the author of the following quote: “We see faith, the root of all the Christian virtues, lessening in many souls; we see charity growing cold; the young generation daily growing in depravity of morals and views; the Church of Jesus Christ attacked on every side by open force or by craft; a relentless war waged against the sovereign pontiff; and the very foundations of religion undermined with a boldness which waxes daily in intensity. more

The Gospel according to St. Luke is rightly called the “Gospel of Prayer.” The other Gospels certainly include several instructions of Jesus on the need and nature of prayer. Yet, it is St. Luke who actually records the words of prayers in his writings like the “Benedictus,” the “Magnificat,” the “Nunc Dimtiis” and the “Our Father.” more

Startled by the imprisonment of St. John the Baptist, Jesus leaves behind the religiously top-heavy area around Jerusalem with its temple liturgies, periodic pilgrimages, priestly ministrations and pious commercialism. Instead, Jesus returns home to Galilee, to the northern region of his youth, an area rich with both Greek and Jewish tradition. more

Few ministries in the Catholic Church have undergone more transformation in the past fifty years than the ecumenical and inter-faith apostolates. Until the mid-twentieth century Roman Catholics hardly set foot inside a Protestant Church or a Jewish temple. Perhaps a wedding or a funeral might have drawn a few Roman Catholics into a non-Catholic edifice, but such Catholics were there as mere observers. Singing hymns, responding to prayers, even standing or sitting with the non-Catholic worshippers was quite unlikely. There was to be no compromise with error. more

An interfaith discussion group has met alternately at Providence College and Temple Emmanuel for a number of years. I have been pleased to be among the Catholic laity and clergy along with professors … more

The Sunday collection! It’s almost an eighth sacrament! The weekly envelope dropped into the collection basket and the all too frequent “special collections” envelopes that support all areas of … more

The Old Testament Book of Tobit is a fanciful tale of Jewish life about two hundred years before Christ. Prayers, psalms, and aphorisms blend a chilling narrative about persecution with a charming … more

My father, mother and I attended the 9 a.m. Mass every Sunday at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Woonsocket. Originally this was the children’s Mass, but even in my teenage years, we continued to attend at this hour since Catholics rarely went to Communion at the later Masses in those days. more

If you were walking along the beach at Narragansett and you noticed a wristwatch in the sand, would you pick up the wristwatch and remark, “Oh, look! The wind and the sand and the waves and the shells and the sea weed and fish bones all came together at the just the right moment and produced this wristwatch!”? Or would you more likely comment, “Oh, look! Someone lost their watch!” The likelihood of a wristwatch being constructed by an accident of nature is highly unlikely. The thought is absurd. Well, if timepieces don’t result from chance neither does this glorious universe that mankind inhabits. The order in the stars, planets and heavenly bodies, the productive harmony known as the four seasons, the intricate coordination found in the human body, the unfailing resilience of humanity and nature after assorted disasters – surely these are evidence that initiating and guiding the destiny of this earth is what the Greeks called the “Nous” or the “Mind,” and what the Semitic peoples called “God” and what we Christians know as “the Father.” more

Retired priests engaged as part time help at a number of parishes, active pastors administering two adjacent parishes, and one or two priestly ordinations a year are unavoidable indications that … more

During the Jubilee Year of Mercy announced by Pope Francis, the Gospel account of St. Luke is coming under special scrutiny since one of its co-titles is The Gospel of Mercy. Yet, as important as … more

The Wisdom Book of Ben Sira, a portion of which will be heard as the first reading this coming Sunday, deals mostly with moral instruction, that is, ancient Jewish wisdom, offered in the forms of … more

A phrase readers might not have heard since their days in catechism class is the expression rash judgment. Rash judgment is, of course, jumping to conclusions regarding a neighbor’s conduct. The … more

June 19 marked the conclusion of the Year of the Priest, intended by Pope Benedict to offer spiritual support to priests and appropriately to mark a century and a half since the death of St. John Marie Vianney, universal patron of the Catholic priesthood. more

The City of Woonsocket, largely through the influence of the local Pentecostal churches, has had a Day of Public Prayer each autumn for the past few years. The day of prayer, held at a public park, … more

Catholic Christianity has truly inherited much of its beliefs, morality and worship structure from ancient Judaism. A belief in One God, probably unique in the ancient world, is clearly a Christian … more