During my time as the assistant Catholic chaplain at a state prison, I learned how chaplains must model their ministry to those who are vulnerable in the same spirit as St. Veronica.
Ministry
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Communion, death and a Last Supper in the NICU on Holy Thursday
For me, Communion is holy and very real, a connection to God and to God’s people. As a hospital chaplain, though, my job is to support the spirituality of patients and families right where they are.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
Many teens feel forced into confirmation. We can still make Jesus real in their lives.
The sacrament of confirmation is the pathway to an adult faith life for young people. As their teachers, it is our job to help today’s confirmation class students meet and love Jesus and live his Gospel. But our job today poses unique challenges.
Posted inFaith, Features
Where Have All the Volunteers Gone?: Behind the Decline of After-College Service
Fewer young people are choosing full-time service after college. How will volunteer organizations adapt?
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Women are doing the work of deacons all around us. Let’s recognize them.
What could be possible if the gifts of diaconal women were empowered through ordination?
Posted inFaith, Short Take
The real issue with St. Pat’s funeral for a transgender activist? Radical individualism.
Mourners wanted Cecilia Gentili’s funeral to be held in St. Patrick’s Cathedral for “iconic” reasons, to make the deceased the “star of the show,” emphasizing the individual over the society.
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Podcast: A parish priest’s approach to blessings for same-sex couples
This week on “Jesuitical,” Father Alex Santora, a pastor in Hoboken, N.J., joins Zac and Ashley to explain how “Fiducia Supplicans” is being received in his parish.
Posted inFaith, News
Meet the DJ priest bringing the Gospel to young people through electronic music
At a Halloween festival with some 30,000 partygoers, Father Peixoto re-mixed electronic dance beats with words from Pope Francis’ encyclical about protecting the environment. “The people are dancing with sentences from ‘Laudato Si’.’”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A new strategy for failing prisons: hiring former inmates
A prison warden in Mississippi hired nearly a dozen released model inmates to work as chaplains, counselors and teachers. Other prisons can follow suit—and Christian ministries can help.
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
Podcast: Preaching to the hearts of college students
Rev. Brian Ching, C.S.C., shares with host Ricardo da Silva, S.J., how knowledge of the Scripture, the life of faith and knowledge of the people in the pews is central to a good harmony.