There’s a lot of talk these days about fake news. I do not like the word fake, “a forgery” among other definitions. What they’re referring to is something written to mislead or trick the reader, especially if it disagrees with a given bias or promotes a perceived bias. Fake news, …

Q: I have been told that heaven will be a place of complete joy with no pain, anxiety or sense of loss. Knowing that all of my family and friends might not attain heaven, how will I (presuming I am in heaven) not feel a sense of loss knowing that …

By Jeanne Hunt One of my favorite passages in Scripture is the time Mrs. Zebedee tries to get Jesus to give her sons first-row seats at the heavenly banquet (see Matthew 20:20–28). I can really identify with her motivation. The mother’s handbook requires us to look out for our boys. …

The young news clerk at the newspaper I edited in North Carolina had a healthy, if peculiar curiosity about Catholics and our beliefs. Did we really pray to statues? Did we pray in a language (Latin) also used by Satan? Did we really drink blood at Mass? Did all Catholics …

By Father David Endres Q: I received the Eucharist under both forms – the host and from the chalice – for the first time recently and I felt Christ in my heart as never before. I thought it was because I was receiving the Precious Blood and not just the …

Our parents told us to stay away from the river, so naturally, that’s where we went. We would get muddy in the sour-smelling river muck that lined the banks of the Mississippi, right near what the local historians claimed was the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition up …

By Jeanne Hunt Had enough? What I mean is that all of us are being bombarded by rants, propaganda, crazy media news… Need I say more? The world around us is full of fear and anger. Scripture tells us to be “in the world but not of it.” (“I gave …

Q: One of the most difficult things to explain to my non-Catholic friends is why we decorate our churches with statues. They say they are graven image, and some even reject statue art in museums and engravings on coins. They are especially critical of the crucifix. How can I respond? …

By Jeanne Hunt I recently asked a group of parishioners to tell me what they are afraid of. I said they could say whatever came into their minds. Profound or silly, any answer was a good one. This is what they said: Death, sickness, losing my job, not having enough …

It stood on the top floor of St. Bernard Catholic School, glorious in its art deco green and chrome glory, emblazoned with a “5-cent” symbol and little display windows. It was the closest thing to heaven the school’s 400 students could imagine — the candy machine. That machine, with its …