Steerage on Peter’s Barque

Since its founding, Christianity has employed imagery to capture the reality of the Church. Consider St. Paul’s reference to the Body of Christ, or subsequent references to the Bride of Christ, the Lord’s flock, or the People of God. One particularly poetic image which can…

This could be my daughter

Daniel Torchia, the communications director at the Toronto based Salt + Light Television Network – www.saltandlighttv.org (see Advancing the Kingdom article dated 2/29/10 entitled ‘With Salt and Light’) brings to our attention a documentary S + L is preparing for release this fall about Bethlehem…

The Power of Beauty

A few years ago a childhood Catholic friend who had abandoned religion soon after college when he moved overseas returned to the States to attend his mother’s funeral.

Build Jake's Place

In the New Testament, Jesus teaches us that we should have a welcoming attitude towards children because “the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mt. 19:14). And, the life of Jesus, as recounted in the Gospel stories, also teaches us that good can…

Time

Rome is, of course, known as the Eternal City, the city without time. Church historians observe that the Vatican deliberates in a “time-agnostic” way, that is in a manner so independent of concern for time that it thinks in terms not of years but of…

Hope

An intriguing question would be: how instrumental is the virtue of hope in the advance of the Lord’s Kingdom?

"To retreat is to advance"

As counter-intuitive as it seems, at times the success of an advance may depend on the success of a retreat. The “Men of Malvern” have been demonstrating this now for 100 years.

Slippers or Sandals

Earlier this month an acquaintance of mine, a young and very wealthy heiress, informed me with some relief that her accountant had finally calculated the amount she could “afford to give” before the end of the year in order to maximize the charitable income tax…

Former Catholic Conference Executive Named Foundation Trustee

Richard J. (“Dick”) Dowling is NCCF’s newest trustee, having been elected to the Foundation’s board at the board’s quarterly meeting in January. He is the recently retired executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, a position he held for 24 years. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland,…

Alaska Archbishop to Head Foundation's Church Affairs Council

February 26, 2009—Crownsville, Maryland: Anchorage Archbishop Roger L. Schwietz, OMI, today assumed the chairmanship of the National Catholic Community Foundation’s Church Affairs Council, which is advisory to Foundation trustees and serves to ensure that NCCF activities are consistent with Catholic Church teachings. (more…)