As a priest, ignoring my own emotions and how they may interact with the joys and pains of another is not an option.

For the first time in its 82-year history, Miracle Hill Ministries will allow Catholics to serve as volunteers and employees in its vast network of homeless shelters, thrift stores and drug-recovery programs and as parents to foster children in its government-funded foster care agency.

You cannot be a Christian and not live an eschatological life, which is to say, you must live one marked by a patient expectation in the promise and plan of Jesus.

In an age characterized by all but a desperate need for solidarity, when the religious and secular bonds of community have become badly frayed, bridges real and metaphorical have become more important than ever.

The Church of the Visitation in Westphalia, Texas, burned to the ground July 29. The fire is still under investigation.