“He has the servant thing down.” I was leaving Mass at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Holland, Michigan, in town for an event at Hope College. And the Uber driver, Robert, who happened to pick me up, was telling
The losses are heartbreaking. Drug-related and drive-by shootings. Gang warfare that ends in murder. Women beaten or stabbed to death by their partners. A 3-year-old dying in a fire set by her father. Three communities of sisters in Erie, Pennsylvania, do not
Father John Brenner (1931-57), a Hungarian Cistercian priest and martyr, was beatified May 1. Living in communist Hungary, Father Brenner was called to give last rites to a dying man, but it turned out the request was a ruse and instead he
There was a moment during the recent Napa Institute conference where I found myself looking around and thinking the exact opposite of what everyday news headlines suggest: We were not too far away from heaven. The Napa Institute was formed to renew
The Sisters of Mercy made headlines after they were arrested in February for peaceful civil disobedience in Washington, D.C., where they were demanding a new policy for the thousands of Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) recipients. But their ministry to serve
Catholicism first came to California in 1769, when Spanish Franciscan missionaries led by St. Junipero Serra came from Mexico to San Diego to establish the future state’s first mission. Today, California is home to 12 dioceses and 11 million Catholics — 29
The face of the Church in the United States is changing, and the face of the clergy is changing with it. And while this change in demographics presents certain challenges for seminaries and houses of formation, leaders in the Church say these
The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, more commonly known by its acronym CARA, has kept a close eye on the trends in seminary formation and those entering religious life for many years. As the Church in the United States grows
Question: Do you think that since the Second Vatican Council there has developed confusion between the roles of laity and clergy in the Church? Some commentators seem to think so. Now we have lay ministers of all sorts. What do you make