Before his ordination, a priest in the Midwest worked as an airline desk agent. On one occasion, a snowstorm paralyzed the airport. People lined up for reroutes, but it was impossible. He said an unnamed (widely recognized) celebrity lost his patience and demanded, “Do you know who I am? Do you!”...

Most pastors are familiar with the unpleasantries of patrolling parish grounds after dark. After disrupting a young couple seeking privacy in the darkness of the parking lot, a young man rolls down the car window. As he zooms away he yells, “I’ll see you in hell!” Many may not...

Jesus teaches: “The first [commandment] is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your...

Those of us who lived through the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s understand the gradual breakdown of taboos. Playful rock and roll music (“I want to hold your hand”) devolved over the years into drug-crazed acid rock and even rape lyrics (don’t ask). When we heard the lyrics (always a...

Patients use Internet medical portals to make appointments, ask questions of medical personnel, and check laboratory results. But do the medical portal masters follow the science? The portal masters now ask: What was your sex assigned at birth? (Me: “I don’t remember.”) What...

Our life experiences are mostly incommunicable because other people are busy living their own lives. We often try to communicate our experiences like snapshot photos, but we fall short. Photographs need explanation. A biography is like a movie. It places snapshots of our life experiences into...

An amusing Jewish-mother joke worthy of a Seinfeld episode goes like this: A mother telegraphs her daughter with an urgent message. “Bad news coming tomorrow, begin worrying today.” The account of Mary and Martha in the Gospel is lovely. The gentle repetition of Martha’s name is a charming...

The Church solemnly teaches that Mary is the Mother of God. Most would readily agree that Mary is the mother of Jesus. But how can a mere mortal be the mother of the Deity? The Theotokos controversies of the 4th and 5th centuries settled the matter. With every “Hail Mary,” we invoke...

We tend to measure the morality of our behavior against the effects of our actions. The criteria seem reasonable, but some evil actions (such as dishonest stock trading) pay rich rewards. Among the most neglected concepts in Catholic moral theology are intrinsically evil acts that offend...

Is it ever permissible for a good Catholic to criticize the Church? If so, which attributes could be criticized? The doctrinal unity of the Church? The holiness of the Church? The universal reign of the Church? Her apostolic teachings? Is Mary, the mother of the Church, objectionable? The one...