Essay

Twenty-four years ago this week, I was in Jerusalem to cover Pope John Paul II’s epic pilgrimage to the Holy Land for NBC. After going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to pray at […]

March 19th is the Solemnity of St. Joseph. People look to the saints as models of virtue, evidence of how concrete human beings have managed to live the kind of lives God wants of us. […]

Can one commit pilgrimage “adultery”? In the months of planning leading up to my taking a group of pilgrims along a portion of La Via di Francesco—the Way of Saint Francis—to Assisi in Italy, I […]

A few weeks ago, the priest gave me the most memorable advice that I’ve heard in the confessional in a long time. I had finished recounting my sins, and, before absolution, Father made this observation: […]

“Fasting is a medicine.” — St. John Chrysostom “The days will come, when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” — Matthew 9:15 “What are you giving up for Lent?” […]

Hollywood has lost the plot, and is bricking what should be cinematic layups. The once can’t-miss Marvel franchise is serving up duds. In the hands of Disney, the Star Wars universe is losing whatever fan […]

This past Christmas, Jesus did not come to me as a baby in a manger but as a man on a cross. It was Lent in Advent. On December 7, I checked into a hospital […]

Presently, within the Catholic Church, there is much discussion concerning the development of doctrine. Traditionally, doctrinal development was understood to be an authentic growth in the Church’s understanding and articulation of what had always been […]