I once heard a talk by a priest who was also a clinical psychologist, in which he said: “If you are a Christian, you have to believe that people can change. If you don’t believe people can change, you have no right to call yourself a believer in Jesus Christ and in his Gospel message. It
This book is a not a history of Catholicism in Ulster as a religion but rather considers the Catholics of Ulster as a political and cultural identity Anyone who has spent any time in Northern Ireland knows that the confessional designation of Catholic and Protestant is shorthand for a specific and
In the era of air travel and bullet trains what most people understand by ldquo pilgrimage rdquo says Anne McPherson is ldquo a beeline trip to a distant goal rdquo She herself has lived by an older French notion ldquo walking to the saints rdquo For the pilgrims to the shrine of St Jam
On Jan 2 1882 Teddy Roosevelt burst into the Republican caucus room in Albany wearing a cutaway coat and carrying his silk hat and gold-headed cane His single eyeglass with gold chain over his ear and center-parted hair marked him as every bit the ldquo dude rdquo a rich playboy But he was n
The parables of Luke 15 often called ldquo The Gospel within the Gospel rdquo epitomize Luke rsquo s message of forgiveness and repentance These motifs appear more frequently in Luke than in any other Gospel Zechariah heralds the coming of the Lord who will bring forgiveness of sin 1 77 an
About a year ago I wrote in this space about the challenge of interfaith marriages and families, and to my delight, I received several affirming letters from priests and lay people. They agreed that the church’s response to such unions will be among the defining issues of 21st-century Catholic
Israeli Troops Enter Village, Make Night ‘Like Hell’Night in the mainly Christian village of Beit Jalla was “like hell,” said the Rev. Yacoub Abdel Nur, pastor of Annunciation Catholic Church, after Israeli forces entered the village. “It was terrible; nobody could slee