The other day, one of my readers sent me a hilarious note: Hey, Mark, you may get terrific questions as a Catholic author/speaker, but as a Catholic high school teacher, I get terrific answers. My current favorite: Q: Name the seven capital/deadly sins. A. (among the others): Sluttony I have to say … Read more
A Catholic News Service (CNS) article on January 27 reported a comment by Bishop Robert Lynch of St. Petersburg, Florida, on the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). Asked by CNS reporter Nancy Frazier O’Brien about FOCA, Bishop Lynch spoke against it, but then tried to dismiss Catholic concerns about the impact of the bill on … Read more
In 2001, as the full breadth of the sexual abuse scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church hit the pews, disbelief turned to outrage at our parish, St. Ignatius in San Francisco. Everyone demanded, “How did this happen?” Fingers pointed at the bishops, and their long lax handling of clerical abusers with counseling, penance, transfer, and … Read more
Twelve years before the genocide in Rwanda that would claim the lives of a million people, the “Mother of the Word” appeared to a pious 16-year-old girl, Alphonsine Mumreke, in the remote village of Kibeho. The Virgin’s first appearance was in late 1981 at a school administered by religious sisters whose students were predominantly Catholic, … Read more
It’s 8 a.m. and the dingy apartment building is momentarily unguarded. A woman sweeping her doorway across the street cranes her neck to watch the American walking hurriedly toward the home of her infamous neighbor. I knock, keeping my back to the police camera hidden in the hallway. An elderly man — not the one … Read more
If I were asked to summarize the typical cultural narrative of Christianity to which the average Westerner holds, it would be something like this: “Jesus was a good man who taught us to love each other, but tragically he was killed (nobody really knows why, but it probably had something to do with “religious conservatives” … Read more
The media and Catholic blogosphere continue to react in the opposing directions of joy or horror, depending on which side of the ecclesial aisle one stands, to the Vatican decree remitting the 20-year excommunications of four illicitly consecrated bishops of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). The New York Times adroitly captures the inner … Read more
When Mary and Joseph found Jesus in the temple discussing with the elders the ancient law of Israel, they did not understand what they had seen, nor what He meant when He said, “Did you not know that I must be about my father’s business?” Yet we are told that His mother “kept all these … Read more
Shortly after Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the United States in April 2008, a non-Catholic friend asked me: “What is Pope Benedict’s central message?” I told him that, through his words and example, Benedict wants to show people that Catholicism is not a matter of prohibitions and rules but a beautiful and joyful way … Read more
One of the many peculiarities of contemporary Catholicism resides in the fact that so many people on the extreme left and extreme right of the Church are in basic agreement about the Second Vatican Council. In fundamental ways, they insist, Vatican II was a sharp break with the Catholic past. People on the left generally … Read more
The criticism of a recent column, “My New Year’s Wish for the Church,” forced me to think more deeply about the road to renewal in the Catholic Church. Several readers argued I was forcing Evangelical habits on a Catholic parish. Of course, I would still insist that Catholics need to be more welcoming to each … Read more
On January 11, my family went to noon Mass at Blessed Sacrament parish in Seattle. It was being celebrated by our visiting priest, but after he processed up to the altar, we were astonished to see that Father Tom Kraft had taken a seat beside him. Father Tom is one of the sweetest and holiest … Read more
In this classic and controversial Crisis Magazine article, H.W. Crocker III lists ten things Catholics should be proud of. Do you agree? With its divine foundation, sanction, and mission, nothing could be more glorious than the Catholic Church. But, of course, many people — even many baptized Catholics — don’t see it that way. … Read more
For twenty-five years I’ve lived with him, Fought him, starved with him. For twenty-five years my bed is his — If that’s not love, what is? — Fiddler on the Roof “Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?” This is the question we fear on airplanes, the question we recoil from in doorbell encounters. … Read more
In most years, Epiphany marks the real beginning of winter here in northern Illinois. November and December roll along, as temperatures drop and the days grow shorter, but the weather that we normally associate with the Upper Midwest — days-long snowstorms, blowing winds, bitter temperatures — make their appearance about the same time as the … Read more
Over the past few months, in the service of a book I’m writing on the challenges inherent in a life of faith, I’ve covered some subjects that are near and dear to my heart, as I know they are to yours — namely, Lust, Greed, Wrath, Vanity, Envy, Gluttony, and Sloth. I’ve explored the nature … Read more
Running across the back of my house here in Manchester, Massachusetts, there is a narrow porch leading to a deck that looks out onto a lawn surrounded by hemlocks and rhododendron. My father was an amateur ornithologist — he thought of himself simply as a “bird-watcher” — so all six of us children, now in … Read more
About 25 years ago, I had the first of many dinners with the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus, when he was still a Lutheran. He objected to the term "converting" for a baptized Christian who became Catholic: Rather, such a one "embraced" Catholicism. I demurred, as I thought I had converted, albeit not from … Read more
The fifth-century Christian writer Suplicius Severus tells a story from the life of St. Martin of Tours. Upon being made bishop of that city, Martin became curious about a small roadside shrine supposedly devoted to an early Christian martyr. Wanting to know if the shrine was authentic, he asked older members of the community about … Read more
Recently, Rod Dreher posed a question about what a Catholic is to do when he thinks a magisterial authority has made some error of fact concerning, say, science, politics, or economics. Dreher’s post concerns the question of whether some bishops are mistaken to think morning-after pills are abortifacient, but it could just as easily pertain to … Read more