Rarely has a film haunted me as much as Iranian director Asghar Farhadi's French language film, "The Past." It is a story about dysfunctional families and their miscommunications, secrets and lies.

Five years ago I wrote a Lenten meditation quot Jesus the Prisoner quot America March 30-April 6 2009 I was interested in the theme because I was then reading a book written by Michael Kennedy S J Jesus the Risen Prisoner An Invitation to Freedom I was taken by how rarely we ever hear o

A prospective reader of this blog noting its title might assume that it might be about contemplation the meditative techniques and practices which help us see ourselves and the world differently In fact it is about my reactions to an extraordinary and large the largest exhibit ever held in San

For 100 years, the Catholic Church played a key role in San Francisco politics and culture.

Cardinal John Henry Newman 39 s classic 1859 article quot On Consulting the Faithful on Matters of Doctrine quot was much disputed in his time and after Newman included the laity among those faithful but also parish priests and indeed the whole body of the faithful He wanted to stress not ju

From 2013: On several occasions, Francis has talked about tackling unemployment and signaled out the high unemployment of youth as one of the two most salient issues facing the world at present. He also attacked what he called unjust salaries.

From John A. Coleman, S.J.: "the point of being a Christian is to find a place of evident freedom, courage, joy and hope."

We Americans would be very well served (and it is, of course, a Catholic motif) by some massive injections of Whitman's robust sense of a relational self.

When I saw recently the excellent movie quot Disconnect quot about the destructive potentials in internet use I was led to reflect or notice the following items Item 1 In late February of this year I spent four days in Northern Minnesota giving some lectures at Saint John 39 s University

The Marin Theatre Company in Mill Valley has mounted the west coast premiere of Matthew Lopez 39 s play quot The Whipping Man quot The play won the 2011 John Gassner new play award from the New York Outer Critics 39 Circle It played there at the Manhattan Theatre Club It is set at the end o