Dante’s Inferno got a great visual work over in a Robin Williams movie about a dead man who leaves paradise after being re-united with his dead chldren because he wants to go to hell to rescue his wife who  killed herself in grief after they all died. It was a cruel movie because anyone who [...]

I should look up the origin of this feastday. It is not traditional in the most traditional Churches of the East. I wonder if it is a good idea. Its placement right after Christmas is certainly not. Families are doing well say the psychologists when they fight only 50% of the time during the holidays [...]

We all know of families who had a beloved member die at Christmas time and we thought how terrible because every time Christmas comes around the trauma of the death will be remembered and spoil the holiday. In fact, I think one secret of Christmas, kept very much to ourselves is that if there is [...]

I got an email chain letter about fighting off Darwin. This is a peculiarly American religious problem. Creationists were barred from a Vatican symposium a few years ago. One Galileo was enough for European Christians. Fundamentalism remains mostly in Christian circles a challenge on this side of the Atlantic. When I started some remarks on [...]

December 17, 1960 I became a Catholic. Maryknoll Father, Cy Gombold, pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Punahou in Honolulu was my mentor. He is featured in my book on the shadow side of ministry. That little book (sorry, badly edited), really sums up the 50 years. My friends tried to dissuade me by protesting all [...]

One of my favorite writers has had what she calls “writer’s blockade” for centuries now. She is Fran Lebowitz. She also calls getting old the “last laugh” stage of life. When she gives talks, she gets booed a lot. But as a preacher who gets nervous when someone at Mass gets up to us the [...]

Another Marian feast day! This time from Mexico. A Marxist (yes, a real one) told me that the Communists would never take over Mexico. (Remember we had to stop them in Central America because like dominoes they would tip one country over and then another and then they would be up to the Rio Grande.) [...]

This feast of the Immaculate Conception is a great time to share things about the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the press you still see the confusion between the virgin birth and the immaculate conception. The  virgin birth refers to Christ’s own birth and the immaculate conception to Mary’s normal birth. Mary preserved from the deprivations [...]