Prior to World War II, there were many young people in Germany who belonged to the Nazi youth movement. Some were forced into joining, but most participated quite eagerly and enthusiastically—including a 15-year-old girl named Margaret Mehren. She...
At the time of Christ’s birth there was a great Jewish rabbi named Hillel, known for his wisdom and understanding. He died when Our Lord was about 15, so it’s possible Jesus met him personally—perhaps when, at the age of 12, He spent three days in...
I don’t know about you, but I sure hear a lot of people complaining about their jobs these days. Climbing the corporate ladder is taking its toll, especially when the climb stalls. It seems “respect” is something we often hear, but less seldom...
More than any other, perhaps, the parable of the prodigal son reveals to us an aspect of the heart of the Father in the only way we, mere human beings, can understand it. For this reason, then, we ought to resist the habitual tendency that we all...
In the Book of Exodus, we read of the Israelites departure from Egypt and of their miraculous deliverance by God through Moses. As part of that story, we read of the time when Moses went up on Mount Sinai and was given the Ten Commandments. He...
Recently, our friends at Crisis Magazine (19 March 2018) published an upsetting account of a Catholic college not defending a student who was promoting Church teachings on love, marriage and family. I immediately forwarded the article to several of...
“Nattering nabobs of negativism,” is probably the most enduring of the many alliterative pronouncements of Spiro Agnew, Vice President in the Nixon administration until forced to resign because of corruption. This particular phrase, penned by Nixon...
In my 45 years of ministerial priesthood, I have found myself confronted by situations that elicited in me spontaneous, irrepressible pity. As a priest, of course, I know and I preach about the value of suffering in union with Christ. I maintain...
