National Public Radio featured a discussion of religion among millennials, young adults born just before the turn of this century. One speaker decided to wait before introducing her own children to any specific religious tradition, allowing them to be exposed to diverse spiritual experiences and then arriving at their own religious conclusions as they approached adulthood. The Catholic practice of infant baptism seemed presumptuous to the speaker, coopting a believer’s opportunity to make an informed and mature choice regarding one’s eternal destiny. Millennials are certainly not alone in this thinking. 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

A few Sundays ago, the Gospel featured Jesus’ disciples asking, “Increase our faith.” Happily Pope Francis’ first encyclical, “The Light of Faith,” celebrates faith’s Scriptural, spiritual, ecclesial and social consequences. In our era when the Christian faith at the heart of Catholicism is so misunderstood, mocked or ignored, the pontiffs’ words are most welcomed. Amid the secular considerations that preoccupy today’s unbelieving society, the pope insists that Christians “profess their faith in God’s tangible and powerful love, which really does act in history and determines its final destiny: a love that can be encountered, a love fully revealed in Christ’s passion, death and resurrection.” more

Pope Francis’ celebrated remarks on the return air flight from Brazil’s World Youth Day included a profound observation on the Blessed Virgin Mary: “Our Lady is more important than the Apostles! She is more important!” Our Holy Father offered this same observation later to the in flight reporters: “But I’d like to say something about this. I’ve said it, but I repeat it. Our Lady, Mary, was more important than the Apostles, than bishops, deacons and priests.” This second papal response answered a not unexpected question about women in the priesthood. more

In concluding his recent encyclical, The Light of Faith, Pope Francis observes that the faith life of the Christian is not only a journey, as recalled when the nomadic Abraham and Israelites were considered, but the life of faith is also a process of building. more

Certainly one of the saddest lines in Sacred Scripture is the conclusion to this Sunday’s Gospel: “But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Jesus who will labor, preach, sacrifice, suffer and die for the salvation of mankind wonders whether his life work will come to naught. And well might Jesus worry. more

Although separated by centuries in time, Naaman the Syrian healed of leprosy and the thankful Samaritan also healed of leprosy both experienced an inner transformation that began with faith and evolved into love. more

Although separated by centuries in time, Naaman the Syrian healed of leprosy and the thankful Samaritan also healed of leprosy both experienced an inner transformation that began with faith and evolved into love. more

The parable of the poor man named Lazarus and the rich man, sometimes named Dives (the Latin word for rich), should come as no surprise to St. Luke’s faithful readers. more

Saint Luke must have had his tongue fixed squarely in his cheek when he presented the parable of the unjust steward to his readers. more

The intersection of Broad Street and the service road that runs alongside Route 95 in Providence offers a double opportunity to reflect on some challenges in today’s society. more

Few words in the Scriptures are more disconcerting than the alarming phrases read in this coming Sunday’s Gospel passage: Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” more

Although Jesus Christ has been memorialized by preachers as priest, prophet and king at least since the Lutheran theologian Philip Melancthon first joined these distinguished titles, nowhere in Scripture does Jesus take these honors to himself. more

Our spiritual mother’s role is historically unique Mary of Nazareth is rightly recalled and uniquely honored as both virgin and mother. more

Only four or five parishes in the diocese of Providence have more than one priest in residence. more

A few years ago I listed my great-grandfather and great-grandmother’s names on a genealogy web site and, sure enough, someone from England contacted me citing a distant relationship. more

Our freshman class at Our Lady of Providence Seminary at Warwick Neck in 1958 was greeted by a senior class that this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary of ordination. more

All four Gospel accounts record the celebrated confession of St. Peter in Jesus Christ as Messiah. As the Gospel account of St. Luke is read this Sunday, note that Jesus’ original question about his identity is addressed to all the disciples. more

Saint Augustine, the learned bishop of Hippo in North Africa, insightfully observed that the four restorations to life that Jesus performed during his public ministry form a handy analysis of how God can address sin whether sin be entrenched in the soul or sin be lurching as a temptation for the unwary. more

The choice of the name Francis by our present Holy Father has expectedly generated a renewed interest in the life and work of the ever-popular St. Francis of Assisi. By a serendipitous co-incidence, Dominican Father Augustine Thompson, professor at Berkeley, recently authored an extensive biography on the saintly poor man. more