There are fashions in devotion just as there are in secular life. But Mary, and the rosary, is different.

Good counsel for young clergy from their senior brothers

I spent the Octave of Christmas offline -- hence no posts for which apologies -- deep in the south-west of England daily visiting my father who is the dementia unit of an elderly care home When I started contributing to In All Things a year ago he was able to log on from his home to read these

One of the world s most popular pilgrimage sites is set to be even more popular this year 2010 is a Holy Year for the Spanish city of Santiago de Compostela which happens every time 25 July -- feast day of St James the Apostle said to be buried in the city s extraordinary cathedral -- falls on

Cambridge MA I blog for America under the ldquo In All Things rdquo title not ldquo The Good Word rdquo but since I preach most Sundays I am occasionally tempted to cross the line and comment on the Sunday readings Perhaps it is auspicious to begin 2010 this way so here is a reflection on

Nowhere in the New York Times in 1990 writes Peter Steinfels in his last Beliefs column today ldquo was there a regular treatment of religion for readers with a special interest in the topic as there was obviously for business and sports but also for science art architecture and many other

I want to wish all readers of this blog a Happy New Year I also want to let you know that I will be leaving for Greece and Turkey tomorrow with Dr Pavel Gavrilyuk and 25 students to explore the sites of ancient Christianity When able I will try to post on the sites the readings for our course

Democrats do not know whether to pity former Vice President Dick Cheney or to vilify him Once again he has launched criticisms of President Obama rsquo s security policies that are more partisan than professorial akin to the kind of thing a mid-level communications director would say more than th

Off and on over the past several months I ve been listening to and watching performances of Wilco s song Theologians from their 2004 album A Ghost is Born I come to the song more as someone presumably addressed by the title than as a Wilco devotee I cannot help but hear this song as a rebuke

David Gibson puts together a useful analysis of the media s handling of an apparent divergence of opinion between the U S C C B and the Catholic Health Association on the health care reform package see Jim Martin s nbsp previous post nbsp on this and the possible use of federal money to pay for a

Determined to locate something positive to say before the editorial close of 2009 this reporter did not have to poke around the net too long before finding news to be happy-new-yearish about despite the bad economy and high unemployment national crime stats continued to trend downward in 2009 A

For the past 25 years on Passover my wife and I have hosted a first night Seder for our friends While the main attraction is often my spouse rsquo s remarkable talents in the kitchen for us it is about sharing the deep meaning of this festival with friends ndash - many of whom are not Jewish Ou

Completing our Best of 2009 awards the award for the outstanding Catholic chief executive goes to Maryland Governor Martin O rsquo Malley A graduate of two of Washington rsquo s most distinctively Catholic institutions Gonzaga High School and the Catholic University of America O rsquo Malley w

nbsp In case you saw the recent New York Times story that was headlined Catholic Groups Suports Senate on Abortion Aid and started out with this graf In an apparent split with Roman Catholic bishops over the abortion-financing provisions of the proposed health care overhaul the nation rsquo s

The award for outstanding Catholic legislator of 2009 is a shared award and a bipartisan one something that is increasingly uncommon in Washington these days Rep Anh Joseph Cao of Louisiana and Rep Bart Stupak of Michigan Both stood up to the leadership of their respective parties to cast votes

Almost a decade ago I was inspired by Naomi Klein s book No Logo to pull the clothes out of my closet and dresser drawers and find out who made them where under what conditions and for how much All in pursuit of one bigger question why I ended up writing a book in 2003 inspired by this experi

US Catholic is devoting almost their entire current issue on the Vatican s apostolic visitation of women s religious communities including an extensive survey and an article entitled The Sisters of Mercy Are Not McDonalds nbsp And be sure to check out our piece by Francine Cardman in our issue

I had myself a tranquil little Christmas this weekend with two civilized family gatherings i e no one Tarzan-swung a chandelier through a bay window no traditional child tantrums around the tree and everyone generally satisfied with the weekend s offerings and observations with no ER visits or

An anecdote sent by New York Times reader David G Wilkins to the paper s Metropolitan Diary column suggests that rising to a place of authority in the church may not be as difficult as one might think During a stopover in New York this year a friend Marco del Bufalo who is an architect decide

In this final week of 2009 this blogpost will be bestowing my awards alas without honoraria to the year rsquo s outstanding Catholic layperson outstanding Catholic legislator and outstanding Catholic government executive Our friend blogger extraordinaire Rocco Palmo always chooses a churchman