Q: As a parish priest, I found your recent article on the Church’s teaching on Freemasonry interesting, and I have a follow-up question: How can one deal pastorally with parishioners who are quick to suspect people of being Freemasons? I can think of one or two parishioners who are convinced the Vatican is infiltrated by…
I once had the privilege of taking a course from James Mackey. In class one day he shared this story. A man he knew was part of a hunting expedition in Africa. His group was camped in a jungle. One morning he left camp early, hiked a few miles into the bush by himself, and…
The themes of wisdom, predestination, and eternal destiny are intimately connected with each other. God in His wisdom guides all things according to the designs of His Providence to the ends that are proper to them. In creating all things, He has endowed them with their distinct natures by which they seek their fulfilment. He…
Most people probably picture in their minds St Francis with birds, preaching to them. Giotto’s fresco is beautiful, rightly famous, and it captures something true about the saint’s love for God’s creatures, for he did indeed call all animals “brothers.” And little creatures St Francis loved most of all. Yet I also picture St Francis…
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone The Gospel Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people: Mt 21:33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he…
Is that your final answer?” Spend enough time watching daytime TV – as I did recently while recovering from surgery – and you realise that on most game shows they almost always give you one more chance. You don’t have to lock in your answer right away. There’s time to reconsider, reverse, change direction, have…
Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you The Gospel Matt 21:28 [Jesus said:] “What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ Matt 21:29 He answered,…
On September 24, the Catholic Church will beatify Venerable Fulton J. Sheen in St Louis. For many Catholics, particularly in the United States, it will be the long-awaited recognition of one of the most recognisable Catholic figures of the twentieth century. Yet Sheen should not be remembered merely as the famous bishop who appeared on…
Q: I’m a Catholic working at a funeral home and assisting at many Catholic funerals. I’m not always in the church for the entirety of Mass. I’m sometimes out during the Gospel and homily or after Communion since I’m helping with the arrangements. Since it’s not fulfilling my Sunday obligation, is it still OK for…
One of the great fruits of the Second Vatican Council has been the return of the Word of God to the heart of the Church. In the Bible we find God’s living Word that encounters us, instructs us and feeds us. Through his Word, “the invisible God, out of the abundance of His love, speaks…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser
Fr Dominik Domagala