Christ the Monarch?

Somewhat jarring, isn’t it? Just days away from the end of the liturgical year when we celebrate the feast of Christ the King to hear this aberration is somewhat odd. The repetition of names can result in a situation where familiarity trumps significance. When we…

Evangelizing power

Earlier this week, I was struck by a line which appeared in an obituary a eulogist wrote for a friend who had died unexpectedly. Addressing his remarks to his deceased companion he wrote: “In a world alarmingly adrift, a world hungry for good news and…

The gentleman saint

The annual Red Mass for the Diocese of Wilmington was celebrated earlier this week. The celebrant was our bishop, Bishop Francis Malooly, and with him around the altar were numerous priests, deacons and altar servers. As has been the case for the past 25 years,…

The nine commandments

Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. The world has received many blessings through God’s Chosen People, the greatest of which is, of course, the mind-opening knowledge that there is one God. Among the other gifts the Almighty has given us…

Pope Benedict’s Lebanon Voyage (1292)

Middle East scholar Father Samir Samir on the Holy Father’s trip and the ‘Arab spring.’ Pope Benedict XVI visits Lebanon Sept. 14-16, arriving in the Middle East region at a time of bloody internal conflict in Syria and simmering tensions between Israel and Iran.

Personal and spiritual solidarity

How time flies. It was just a few years ago that this column reported on the Missionary Oblate Partnership (www.OblatePartenrship.org). Having begun in 2004 with a handful of participants, it is today an organization that comprises over 75 members in the United States and Europe!…

Mary Assumed

Every religious culture has its own jargon. Some expressions have pulled loose from their religious moorings and entered our common lexicon. I think of “mecca,” “nirvana,” and “kosher.” Catholicism is no exception. You don’t have to be a believer to call someone “Mother Teresa” or…