Among the more puzzling scenes in Sacred Scripture are the Caesar’s coin passages in the synoptic Gospels. Read in isolation, Jesus’ somewhat cryptic interaction with his inquisitors is difficult to understand. But when read in the context of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans and through the lens of the …

While respect for human life must not be limited to a single issue (about which I say more below), the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reminds us in “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” that abortion is the foremost consideration. Throughout the 2020 presidential election, it was easy for …

The theme of this issue of The Catholic Telegraph is “Care for Creation.” For this column, however, I’m changing the preposition and writing about “Care of Creation” to preserve the notion that we are mandated to care for creation—to cultivate, judiciously utilize and preserve natural resources. But by changing the …

August begins the annual ritual of children dragging their parents to the shopping mall for new clothes, backpacks and sneakers, in preparation for their return to classrooms, playgrounds and athletics fields. The nervous anticipation of going “back to school” is as common to the American experience of growing up as …

Catholic diocesan seminarians head back to campuses and classrooms in August. In some ways, they will have experiences similar to most—days busy with reading texts, attending lectures, writing papers and enjoying extracurricular activities. Additionally, Catholic seminarians are in the process of formation, as men who will serve God by serving …

The National Eucharistic Pilgrimage is an encouraging milestone in the midst of the three-year National Eucharistic Revival. Roughly forming a cross between the four corners of the U.S., the processions witness to Christ’s life-changing presence in the world. Pilgrims from the four routes will converge in Indianapolis on July 16 …

Every rite, ritual, discipline and devotion of the Catholic Church is ordered by and around the Eucharist, which the Second Vatican Council calls the “source and summit of the whole Christian life” (Lumen Gentium 11). The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) further underscores that “the moral life finds its …

In May 2024, I will complete my fifth year on the full-time faculty at Mount St. Mary’s Seminary & School of Theology (MTSM). This is in addition to the three years I taught as an adjunct. These have been the most satisfying eight years of my professional career. I should …

In 1992, British novelist P.D. James departed from her usual genre of detective fiction to write a dystopian novel about the growing prevalence of what Pope St. John II later called “the culture of death.” This culture, wrote John Paul in the 1995 encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, is “fostered by powerful …

The most obvious association that people have with Lent is of “giving something up.” In many cases, of course, this is perfectly legitimate. Along with prayer and almsgiving, fasting is one of the three traditional pillars of Lenten observance, and it is mandated (with exceptions) on Ash Wednesday and Good …