2019

Before Christ, sterility was seen either as a curse or as a condition for God to reveal his power by transforming it into fruitfulness. The patriarch Abram, a Hebrew name meaning “Exalted Father,” was still childless at the age of a hundred when he received an even more incongruous name: Abraham, meaning “Father of a Multitude of Nations.”

John Carroll was named the first bishop of the United States by Pope Pius VI in 1789. In 1791, he wrote a prayer for government to be said throughout the Diocese of Baltimore, which at the time encompassed the entire United States.

God is not a Sadistic Poker Player. Yet this is the image that many young people unknowingly have of Him. He holds the cards of our lives in His hands. He knows the secret to our best life and true happiness, but He won’t tell. We don’t even know if He’s holding a good hand or a bad hand. Worse yet, He might be bluffing.

There are two wonderful and lasting legacies of which the Catholic Church need not be ashamed; indeed, she may trumpet them full-throatedly before the world. So surpassing is their value, so indefectible her possession of them, that neither folly nor wickedness can ever deprive her of their use.

The Church Fathers (those great bishops and theologians of the first five hundred years of Christianity) are a special target of feminist rage, and it must be admitted that these early Church thinkers are certainly not well known for their support for women’s liberation.

The famous “Sermon on the Mount” (Matt 5-7) is best known for its beautiful spiritual and moral teachings. Indeed, it would be hard to beat a sermon that had the Beatitudes, the Our Father, and the command to love your enemy all packed into one!

Christ executed His first miracle because someone requested it. But this someone is not just anyone—it is His mother. It is precisely because Mary is Christ’s mother, the source of His presence in the world, that she has the authority to request a miracle that would lead her Son to His Passion.

The first time I visited the Jordan River—the place where John the Baptist began his ministry—I couldn’t help but think that this prophet could have chosen a much better place to launch his career of preparing the Jewish people for the Messiah.

Contemporary critics of the Church, particularly those who classify themselves as feminist theologians, believe the hierarchical structure of all-male priestly authority is an inherently unjust system and sinful in its exclusion of women from positions of power. Their attack is based upon a secular view of authority as a quantifiable force, exercised visibly and publicly by persons who hold a special position or office.