My newlywed parents lived on 4th Street, S.E., Washington, D.C., around the corner from the U.S. Capitol, in the 1960’s. In those days, the park east of the capitol building still had a grove of elm trees at the western end of East Capitol Street. The trees were over a century old. They chopped down […]
The on-line/print publication asked me to review Papal Policies on Clerical Sexual Abuse: God Weeps by Jo Renee Formicola. They also published my review of the book on their “Clerical Sexual Violence Against Minors” page. — Papal Policies on Clerical Sexual Abuse: God Weeps by Jo Renee Formicola. Peter Lang Publishing, New York, 2019. Reviewed […]
Two hundred fifty-one years ago today, Junipero Serra made landfall in San Diego bay, and his mission to California began. In September of 2015, the pope came to the United States to canonize Father Serra. Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the eastern portico of the National Shrine in Washington, on an absolutely beautiful early-autumn day. […]
If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all. (Mark 9:35) If we really want to understand what this means, I think we have to meditate on Jesus standing before Pontius Pilate. [SPANISH] Christ had made what St. Paul calls His “noble confession.” That is, Jesus […]
I am sending you as a prophet to a rebellious house.” (cf. Ezekiel 2:3) [Spanish] This week we keep a double national anniversary. We are American Catholics, with a homeland stretching from sea to shining sea. So we rejoice in the 242nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, which took place here on the English-speaking […]
Age can catch up with a guy. The good Lord gives us plenty of reminders. Like the gray hair. The sore back. The diminishing powers of memory. But how about when you celebrate the feastdays of saints that you met in person–back when you were young? Like Pope St. John Paul II. Or St. Mother […]
— The Lord gave me an inspiration on the morning of September 11. We had gathered around the seminary security desk, watching the one tv in the building. Right after the first tower came down, I thought to myself: You shouldn’t just stand here. Go into the chapel and pray to the guardian angels of […]
We have to start by going back to the 90’s, and to the work that Pope St. John Paul II did to help us understand our continent and our heritage as Americans. 1992 marked the anniversary of…? Knights? In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Pope St. John Paul II visited the island of Hispaniola […]
Two hundred forty years. Twelve score years. Since…? Yes, the Declaration of Independence. But also, the same summer of 1776: St. Junipero Serra founded the California missions of San Francisco of Assisi and San Juan Capistrano, just south of Santa Maria de Los Angeles. As we read at Sunday Mass, the Lord Jesus said, ‘The […]
(Mark 9:40) Whoever is not against us is for us. This sentence has given us, as Christian and Catholics, one of our most fundamental principles. St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of Pope Francis’ religious order, expressed it at the beginning of his Spiritual Exercises. The first Jesuit wrote: Let it be presupposed that every good Christian […]
Father Mark White Blog 