William Van Ornum

On November 11th the Feast of St Martin of Tours is celebrated Sulpicius Severus who wrote the biography of the fourth-century monk notes the time young Martin was returning from military exercises wearing armor simple cloak and sword A beggar asked for Martin s help in the freezing cold Ma

As part of his doctoral research in the education program at St Louis University in the 1990s Michael Maher studied the attitudes toward student homosexuality in Catholic high schools He was shocked by the silence about this topic When he met with four experienced Catholic school counselors wit

I hope you have been reading Austen Ivereigh s reports from Rome these past few weeks where events have occurred that will define important aspects of church growth in the future Within Ivereigh rsquo s excellent reporting is a story within a story perhaps unnoticed but important nevertheless As

During the past month readers of America followed the pre-execution legal maneuvering to stop the Commonwealth of Virginia from carrying out the death sentence on a woman named Teresa Lewis Lewis was arguably mentally retarded and initially received poor legal representation her case was later tak

In the Midwest there are tornadoes but last month a storm microburst one of politics commanded pages of Chicago rsquo s newspapers spewing winds across the country to Washington DC where Obama rsquo s Chief of Staff resigned to seek the mayor rsquo s office Mayor Richard M Daley Daley II

Suicide–much has been written about this subject and mental health experts study it unceasingly Yet despite the data amassed and the theories and speculations drawn ultimate answers particularly regarding the motives of a particular person elude even the best professionals Outside pressures

A new term is heard more and more in agricultural circles heirloom plants These are fruits vegetables and trees that embody the best traits of their genus and family and deserve to be preserved for the future This takes special care as seen in the two examples below of environmentally-consciou

Many of us will celebrate Mass with African priests who come to the United States from various countries in Africa While these priests are helping us and bring us the sacraments at the same time many take advantage of educational opportunities in the United States with hopes to bring this knowledg

The night train glided over the Mississippi River from Wisconsin into Minnesota and as usual it was running late I hoped a cab was waiting for me for the final 40 miles of the journey but when I had made my reservation the clerk told me the cab would not wait if the train was more than a little