After many grueling months of uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, December finally brought some good news to the United States: several vaccines had been approved to combat the virus. The announcement about these vaccines, however, raised some serious moral...

“Silent Night” and “Joy to the World” are likely the most popular Christmas carols ever written. (Of course, O Come All Ye Faithful is surely a contender.) Interestingly, the songs engage us in strikingly different ways. Silent Night harkens us to a quiet night in the village of Bethlehem, and often the song is sung in almost a whisper.

If we played a word association game and said November, the most likely response is Thanksgiving. In Catholic circles we might also hear the replies of All Saints Day, All Souls, and prayer for the dead. Others might say pumpkin pie, harvest. Thanksgiving Day properly...

Apart from Mary, Mother of God, perhaps no other saint venerated by the Church is as well recognized as Francis of Assisi whose feast day is celebrated on October 4.  In fact, given a tradition of blessing animals on this feast, you may find numerous Protestant churches adopting this practice as a celebration of all of God’s creation.

The one symbol most associated with Jesus and his Church is the cross. The image marks churches, schools, hospitals.  A cross, often with an image of the body of Jesus and thus called a crucifix, is to be found in hundreds of millions of homes around the world. We...

My dear sisters and brothers,

As communities across our country and indeed the whole world have struggled to adapt in an age of pandemic, almost all places have found it necessary to implement guidelines and restrictions. These have included stay-at-home directives, distancing guidelines, and the wearing of masks in public or any place where one is in contact with others.