Ash Wednesday isn’t a holy day of obligation, but in English-speaking countries, it still has a powerful draw even for Catholics who are otherwise non-practicing.

Pope Francis has confirmed that members of the Fraternity of St. Peter may continue to celebrate the Mass, sacraments and Liturgy of the Hours using the pre-Vatican II texts and forms, the fraternity said.

My formal, reserved church could take a cue from those who pray with raw urgency.

While the church’s prayer should not be a battlefield, Archbishop Roche says it is understandable that people are passionate about it.

No one wants to be at a funeral. It means that a loss has occurred, hearts broken. But there are few other instances in which doing something we dread so deeply can mean so much.

Recent edicts and explanations of edicts out of Rome have ignited a familiarly unpleasant conflict in the U.S. church. And yet, though this will infuriate a vocal minority of my fellow Catholics, I just don’t get the brouhaha over the traditional Latin Mass.