Q: I was married in a non-Catholic wedding ceremony, then divorced years later civilly. Once I became Catholic and wanted to marry again, I got an annulment of the first marriage. My non-Catholic friends and relatives said this was a Catholic cop out to get around Jesus’ prohibition against divorce, by saying that the first marriage ‘never happened’. Could you comment?…
The Sunday Gospel Wis 2:12, 17-20 Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6 and 8 Jas 3:16—4:3 Mk 9:30-37 The lives of the saints reveal the many trials and persecutions that the holiest men and women encounter from within or from outside the Church. We learn that some saints who founded religious orders were even rejected by the…
I was very conscious that if I said ’yes’ my life would change in a radical way, says Bishop Paul Dempsey At the age of 18, I made the decision to enter the seminary. Some might think, “God, that was a very young time to become a priest.” Of course, I wasn’t becoming a priest…
Whether our hopes for this summer have been fulfilled or not, the season is waning. Most kids have returned to school, and the full force of the fall calendar is poised to kick in. All we can do now is hope that whatever rest and recreation we managed to get will be enough to draw…
Every week my sons stand in the pew at Mass. Like stairsteps, all five in a row by age and height. Or like a motley crew, mixed together by shapes and sizes. Five boys in the midst of becoming men. They are the reason why the short line tucked within the Nicene Creed catches me…
One of the great religious stories in history is the biblical story of the Exodus, the story of a people being set free from slavery, passing miraculously through the Red Sea, and finding themselves standing in freedom, on a new shore. Most of us are familiar with this story. A nation of people, Israel, was…
Q: What is the criteria determining who can wear a ‘clerical collar’? I’m not sure if it varies from one seminary/diocese to another, but I’m curious why seminary students would wear a collar since they are not a member of the clergy just yet? It’s caused a bit of confusion for adults and children alike…
The Sunday Gospel Is 50:5-9a Ps 116:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9 Jas 2:14-18 Mk 8:27-35 I can still remember the priest who taught us Scripture during diaconate formation talking about the passage from the Gospel that we hear this Sunday, and then asking us what seemed an irrelevant question. “Where does it come in?” he asked…
St Bernadette gives hope to young people facing the challenge of discerning their future, says Fr Barry White Lourdes has always been a place of prayer and healing in my family, especially during times of suffering and illness. My journey with Lourdes began in childhood, inspired by books and the 1943 film The Song of…
Assuming that only atoms and forces exist, you’ll miss out on things like beauty, truth and love says Br Guy Consolmagno “What do I do if science tells me one thing, but religion tells me another thing? Which do I believe?” There’s a false assumption at the centre of that question, because neither science nor…
Fr Ronald Rolheiser