Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted’s tenure was not without controversy, but in my nine years of working with him, I found him to be a prayerful, generous and thoughtful man.
Faith in Focus
Posted inFaith in Focus, Politics & Society
Why #MeToo is essential to understanding pro-choice anger
In the aftermath of sexual trauma, making a woman’s body the site of a legal battle is traumatic itself.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
I think God might want me to be a vegan
I became a vegetarian, and I am now thinking about becoming a vegan. In this discernment, I see God staring back at me.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
‘God may be calling us’: Meet the women aspiring to become deacons
Many people who oppose the idea of women as deacons fear that the potential candidates aren’t faithful Catholics. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Why you should go on a pilgrimage—more than once
Pope Francis has said that going on pilgrimage is “one of the people of God’s most eloquent expressions of faith.” Why?
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Parenting as a Catholic pacifist in an era of mass shootings
I have called myself a peacemaker. I have never held a gun and never want to. But I am also a father, and I will always protect my children.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Many libraries are ending late fees. They’re showing us an unexpected mercy.
In San Diego and Boston, in Burbank and Chicago and Orange Beach, Ala., libraries all over the country have been ending the dispensing of fines for overdue books.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
The Catholic Church needs L.G.B.T. saints
When L.G.B.T. people look at the communion of the saints, we should be able to see someone who looks like us.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
I don’t think we should be banning anyone from the Eucharist.
It is Christ who sets the table and draws up the guest list. Who are we, serving at that table, to amend his invitation?
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
The blessings and sorrows of being a female Catholic hospital chaplain
My journal lists the names of 19 children this year who died after I spoke with their crying mother, their weary father.