Robert P. Maloney, C.M., is the former superior general of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians). He coordinates Project DREAM, an H.IV./AIDS project of the Community of Sant'Egidio and the Daughters of Charity in Africa. He is the author of 12 books and many articles.
My dear younger brothers and sisters: I write, as an older brother, to encourage you. Last month more than a million young Catholics gathered with Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne for World Youth Day. Twenty-five thousand of them were from the United States. The Lord entrusts the future of the church to young people like them and you. Our countryman Walt Whitman once wrote:
Youth,large, lusty, loving,
Have you seen any angels lately? A whole crowd of people sighted one recently in Texas. I got the news in an urgent e-mail from my niece just a few days ago. “Uncle Bob,” she wrote, “we need your prayers. My daughter Jacquelyn and five of her friends were in a terrible accident las
I entered St. Peter’s Basilica yesterday just after the gates swung open at seven in the morning and found myself drawn to the altar of Blessed John XXIII. Each day a priest preaches there who does everything wrong and everything right. He didn’t disappoint me. Having once taught homilet
My niece’s friend asked: “Does the Sign of the Cross always have to be made with the right hand?” Another friend reacted immediately: “Of course it must.” A third retorted, “But isn’t that awkward for a left-handed person?” An account of this debate th
About once a month here in Rome, I go to St. Peter’s and enter when the doors open at 7 a.m. It is awesome to gaze at the huge, empty basilica as the morning light filters through the windows. Lately I have found myself immediately drawn to the altar of Pope John XXIII, where an older Italian
On the night of July 18, 1830, in a chapel on Rue du Bac in Paris, Catherine Labouré, a 24-year-old novice of the Daughters of Charity, had a vision of the Virgin Mary. They spoke familiarly for two hours. In this conversation, and in a second apparition on Nov. 27, Mary gave Catherine a twof
We who live today in a notably hierarchical church do not always find it easy to appreciate the important role of lay people in the early church, especially of women, even though we have heard about it repeatedly in the readings at Mass on Sundays. How often do we recall Tabitha, whose life “w
