Having spent the past 15 years at various Jesuit institutions, I have probably logged more hours on retreats, in spiritual direction, in prayer groups, discussing or teaching theological topics and doing or organizing service work than your average 30-something. But despite all of the above, I am em
Traditional devotions can provoke a wide variety of reactions among contemporary Catholics. For many, the devotional life discovered during childhood has never lost its appeal. For some it has always remained on the fringes of their Catholicism. For still others it seems inconsistent with a mature f
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
The current debates about the sexual abuse scandals in the church revolve around a litany of diagnoses and proposals for reform, touching such topics as clericalism, a culture of dissent, homosexuals in the priesthood, the need for accountability and shared episcopal authority, seminary reform, a re
I’m sort of a nut for the historical Jesus. Of course I’m a nut, or at least a fool, for Christ too, but as for my reading tastes, I much prefer books and articles about the Jesus of history than those on the Christ of faith. The historical (which can often read like detective stories) I
“Sneering and snobbery,” the philosopher Mary Midgeley has written, won dominance for linguistic analysis and existentialism in 20th-century philosophy. Although an overstatement, her comment hits the mark about philosophical fashions. It points to a desperate ploy in the war of ideas. W
Should I feel guilty? The question nagged at me—a good Catholic question, pecking at my conscience as I sat under a shaggy tree on the grounds of a great monastery and listened to the bell as it tolled. It was time to pray. I should have been heading to the church. Others on retreat would be i