Author: Dana Robinson

Those of us alive at the time were too young to understand. The middle of the last century witnessed major historical developments in the world and in the Church. With the wisdom of retrospection, we now better appreciate their significance. The first half of that…

Older readers may recall that although his feast day was removed from the Church’s universal calendar in 1969 Christopher continues to be recognized as a saint and venerated worldwide as the patron saint of travelers.  This distinction arises from the tradition which places him in…

“On those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned”. These words of the prophet Isaiah spoken eight hundred years before the birth of Christ today bring to mind the rapid propagation of the faith in Africa. Known for centuries by Europeans,…

Readers who recognize the term ‘Frassati Fridays’ are either members of the Catholic cognoscenti or students at Martin Saints Classical High School in East Norriton, Pennsylvania. Otherwise, how would they recognize the Frassati reference? Born in 1901, Pier Giorgio Frassati belonged to a prosperous family…

With mixed emotions, we report on the death of our first Trustee Emeritus. George Creel, whose obituary is attached here, left this world on May 7th at the venerable age of ninety-two.   George was an early and longtime booster of the National Catholic Community Foundation.…

It is a fair question. Those familiar with the services of the National Catholic Community Foundation may understandably ask it. After all, NCCF, now completing its third decade of ministry, has enabled donors in the United States to support a broad array of charitable organizations…

Have you noticed how over the past half-century the trend in religiously affiliated real estate has been one of secularization?  Churches have become theatres, chapels boutique salons, and convents office buildings. Even some one-time Catholic campuses have become industrial parks. Could it be the trend…

‘Ambiguity’. ‘Adventure’. In the visiting priest’s homily at Mass last Sunday in our local parish these two words galvanized the congregation.  Faith in God is like marriage. It is a covenant more than a contract, a relationship whose ambiguity, while not without risk, is pregnant…

Through his fund at NCCF, one of our advisors recently initiated a distribution to the Saint Ignatius Parish in Msaladzi, Madagascar. He has forwarded to us the following response and two photos from the pastor, Fr. Heribert Muller. Readers will be as moved as we…

Though we may gainsay the characterization, we Americans are romantic. Perhaps our sesquicentennial is an opportune time to remind ourselves of this feature. We are romantic because we demonstrate and celebrate the mysteriously symbiotic relationship between freedom and purpose. We understand that together they are…