From the earliest days of the Church, followers of Christ were called to evangelization. The Gospel of Matthew chronicles the commissioning of Jesus’ disciples when he says to them: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go,
In another not-so-great public relations moment for the Catholic Church, a story has been circulating recently regarding the funeral of an 18-year-old in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Tragically, and for reasons the family has chosen not to disclose, the young man, Maison,
Ten years ago this December, when I was a writer and photographer for the Arlington Catholic Herald in northern Virginia, I got to tell the story of a very special Santa Claus. For four decades, Santa visited the Merrifield Garden Center just
We often hear about the benefits of seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child — the innocence, the wonder, the excitement. But what about Advent? This has been a lesson for me so far this season. For our family, last December
One of my friends recently posted an article on Facebook from the Catholic website Aleteia singling out National Geographic for creating and sharing an initiative called “Look at us a little differently” on its Instagram feed. The initiative, which first began in
Several times during the course of his pontificate, Pope Francis has asked the faithful if they know the date of their baptism. “Today, at home, go look, ask about the date of your Baptism, and that way you will keep in mind
As the U.S. bishops gathered for their general assembly in Baltimore on Nov. 12-14, much of what they wrestled with was clergy sexual abuse and an appropriate and effective response. And some of it included some “real talk” from those outside of
Every night, as part of my son’s nighttime routine, my husband leads us in a personalized litany of the saints. The attention span of our 18-month-old is, as you can imagine, hit or miss, usually depending upon his level of exhaustion. But
It was kind of funny, but then again it really wasn’t. While Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary of Los Angeles, founder of the media apostolate Word on Fire, was in Rome attending the Synod on Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment, which
If you read one item in the paper this week (and I sincerely hope you read more than one!), let it be the In Focus on the history of the clergy sexual abuse crisis written by Russell Shaw. With clarity and insight,