A priest in New Mexico advised a class of about-to-be-ordained seminarians, “Always remember, you are ordained to serve God, not the people.” more

Pope Benedict XVI was born in the Christmas card perfect duchy of Bavaria in southern Germany. more

A couple of months ago in the second reading at Mass St. Paul wrote to Timothy a concise summary of the whole Gospel message, “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David: Such is my Gospel.” Thus St. Paul links the supernatural, even divine, elements in Jesus Christ (… raised from the dead. …) with the natural and human aspects of the Savior (… a descendant of David). more

My old professor, Father Charles Curran, is the center of controversy once again. Father Curran was the moral theology professor at St. Bernard’s Seminary in Rochester, then controversially at The Catholic University, and lately at Southern Methodist University in Texas. more

In the 1930s and 1940s a number of concerned French clergy attempted to respond to the diminished status of the church in France by inaugurating grassroots movements such as L’Action Francaise, the Sons of Charity and the Young Catholic Workers. more

Advent is a four-week celebration of the presence of God. God the Father was present to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. 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 end of the world is regularly thought to be a dreadful event. The end-times connote destruction for the universe, condemnation for sinners, even trials for the righteous. more

The Public Broadcasting System recently offered a three-night presentation entitled “God in America.” The title really should be, “God in Protestant America,” since the Catholic Church hardly figured at all into the six-hour program. more

All Saints Day worshippers will have an added cause for celebration this year. John Henry Cardinal Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in mid-September in Birmingham, a large English industrial city. more

Pastors — and maybe even parishioners — who get perturbed when crying babies and unruly children interrupt the Sunday sermon are often reminded of Jesus’ attitude toward children when the apostles tried to shush them as they crowded around Jesus on the streets of Jerusalem. more

A monastic practice that probably dates back to St. Benedict himself is a blend of Scripture reading, study, thought and prayer called “lectio divina,” that is, divine reading or sacred reading. more

A month ago the entire Western world was in an uproar over the prospect of erecting a mosque in lower Manhattan near the former site of the Twin Towers. more

All great cultures are based on religion. Certainly that is a sweeping statement but a cursory examination illustrates the contention as plausible. more

Bernie Kilcline was the neighborhood undertaker in Woonsocket when I was growing up. He had taken over McKenna’s Funeral Service on Harris Avenue which was located next to Kiley’s Oil, a home fuel delivery company, founded by my uncle Jack and later managed by my father. more

The Parable of the Unjust Steward in which Jesus commends a crafty manager for playing fast and loose with his employer’s accounts has evoked occasional moral discussion over the centuries regarding Jesus’ apparent recommendation of dishonest behavior. more

The innate, self-centeredness of mankind is evident even in the naming of Christ’s celebrated parable of The Prodigal Son. Consider that there are three substantial roles acted out in this famous parable of mercy unique to St. Luke. more

The second reading this coming Sunday is a portion of the brief, personal letter that St. Paul wrote to a Corinthian gentleman named Philemon regarding the man’s runaway slave named Onesimus. more

Students of Scripture know that Jesus preached more than 40 parables. Some of these thematic tales, like the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, are rather lengthy. Others, like the Pearl of Great Price and the Treasure Hidden in the Field, are quite brief. 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