Very recently at St. Francis Church in Portland, Oregon, a group of parishioners thought it would be a good idea to stage a protest during Holy Mass. The main issue revolves around Fr. George Kuforiji, a priest who came from…
Reverence and Protest at Mass
Observing Grief
Like you, my mind and my heart are reeling after this latest round of mass shootings. Confusion, grief, fear, and outrage are all swirling around inside me. On top of that, there are the secondary, ancillary indecencies: people immediately politicize…
You Don’t Have to Be a Saint to Save Someone
One of the biggest internal obstacles to people sharing the Gospel is their own personal sense of sinfulness. “How can I tell others to live more Christ-like when I don’t live the way I should?” This is the question that…
The Disease of Secret Sin
In my last article I contrasted public sin and private sin. However, I felt like I wasn’t able to give proper attention to the latter as I was to the former. So allow me to expand on my reflections here….
Public Sin vs. Private Sin
Brebeuf Jesuit High School in Indiana has been at the center of a news story. One of their faculty members has entered into a same-sex “marriage.” The Archbishop of Indianapolis urged the school to dismiss the teacher for giving public…
Responses to Abortion Memes
As I wrote in my last article, the culture war surrounding abortion has heated up. One of the things that I’ve noted is new and strange memes that the pro-abortion side has unleashed. A meme is an idea that gets…
Can A Catholic Ever Choose Abortion?
Right now in our Culture War, we have several pieces of legislation passing in different states that are the extremes of the abortion question. Some, like New York, have made abortion available until the moment of birth. Others, like my…
Christianity and Communism
A few days ago, I had a friend of mine ask me what are the differences between Christianity and Communism. He asked because some of his associates were stating that the two world-views were compatible with each other. Communism is…
Mercy is an Act of Faith
Yesterday was the Feast of Divine Mercy. It is a devotion of special significance to me. The Mercy of God has been the focal point of my spiritual life since it truly began. At the services yesterday, the priest preached…
The Inconstant Soul
As we are in the midst of Holy Week there are many momentous things upon which we can reflect. Something that is striking me is the theme of inconsistency. We can constantly see throughout the Gospels that the disciples run…