Educatio Christiana Animae Perfectio

The University Crest of the second largest Catholic University in the United States bears this inscription. As its 15,000 plus student body will attest, the school exemplifies the phrase’s translation: A Christian education perfects the soul. What is the second largest Catholic University? No, it…

Infants in Christ

“But I, brothers, could not address you as ‘spiritual people’, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it.” St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians brings to mind…

Malta

For those with long memories references to the archipelago of Malta bring to mind The Maltese Falcon, that 1941 film noir classic starring Humphrey Bogart and Mary Astor. As time goes by (apologies to Bogart and Casablanca) mention of Malta will elicit in our modern…

Parishioner Thanks Priest Who’s Making a Difference

Sometime ago this column reported on the initiative of an organization in Philadelphia called ‘Shepherding the Shepherds.’ The following update reports on the encouraging success of its ‘Thank-A-Priest’ endeavor. It is prompted by an interview with an individual named Mary, a member of an unidentified…

Antipodes

In spite of the realities of globe-shrinking travel and universal communication, our imaginations still enshroud places on the other side of the world with antipodal remoteness. Understandably, Christians  in America, mindful of our Lord’s Great Commission, might wonder how the Good News could reach such…

Reaching Out

As colloquialisms go, “reaching out’ is relatively new. It has actually been awarded entry in Merriam Webster as a ‘verbal phrase’, the meaning of which is ‘to make an effort to do something for other people’.   Catholics in the United States are fortunate. Several…

New Haven, 1882

It would be difficult to find a Catholic, or for that matter an American, who has not heard of the Knights of Columbus. It was founded as a fraternal society by Father Michael McGivney in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882. Its purpose was to bring…

An Environment of Encounter

Because it has grown so rapidly over the past two decades readers are most likely aware of Damascus. Those of us on the lookout for the ‘new springtime’ predicted for the Church by St. Pope John Paul II will be  pleased to learn more about…

Limited Freedom

“Free to choose but not free not to choose”. In his recently published book The Hell There Is Msgr. Charles Pope forcefully warns us against our insouciant (if not nonexistent) regard for what awaits us after our earthly sojourn. We are at liberty to choose…

Slope or Precipice?

“The falcon cannot hear the falconer, things fall apart. The centre cannot hold”. William Butler Yeats wrote these lines in 1919 in “The Second Coming”, his celebrated poem prompted by the ravages of the First World War. Now, a century later, persistent echoes of his…