CNA—One of the most popular Catholic saints of the 20th century, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, commonly known as Padre Pio, was a Capuchin Franciscan friar, priest, and mystic. His tomb can be found in the Sanctuary of St. Mary Our Lady of Grace in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy. Padre Pio is known for his deep…
If you don’t think Catholics don’t know that the issue of abortion (that is, the killing of innocent, defenseless life — which in California includes up to one month AFTER BIRTH), doesn’t matter as a Catholic, think again. How do we know? Because Catholics who support major pro-abortion candidates (such as Harris-Walz), purposefully downplay the…
CNA—A study by the pro-life group Students for Life of America (SFLA) identified dozens of U.S. Christian colleges and universities, including multiple Catholic institutions, maintaining “some type of relationship” with the abortion industry, including the abortion giant Planned Parenthood. SFLA’s Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement said in its 2024 Christian Schools Project report that 17…
CNA—The second Vatican assembly for the global Synod on Synodality will kick off on Oct. 2, bringing together clerics and laity alike for nearly one month of discussions. Here is what you need to know: What is the Synod on Synodality? The Synod on Synodality, initiated by Pope Francis in October 2021, is a multiyear,…
I have just returned from the magnificent National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis. I can honestly say that those several days constituted one of the greatest moments in my thirty-eight years as a priest. To see more than 50,000 faithful laity, thousands of priests, over 150 bishops, armies of habited religious both men and women, and…
—Homily for the Annual Police-Fire-Sheriff Mass, September 8, 2024; St. Cecilia Church in San Francisco — Introduction It is an honor for us to be here with our firefighters, police officers, sheriff deputies and park rangers, along with dignitaries from our city government, to thank you, our dear first responders, for the invaluable service you…
CNA—A council of Knights of Columbus in Virginia has received a religious freedom award after it won a dispute earlier this year with the government over celebrating Mass at a federal cemetery. The First Liberty Institute awarded the Knights of Columbus Council 694 its Philip B. Onderdonk Jr. Religious Liberty Award in recognition of the…
In 2014, when I first reviewed The Fourth Revolution: The Global Race to Reinvent the State by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, I was struck by how boldly they tackled the impending crisis in governance. They identified the key political challenge of the coming decade: fixing the bloated and dysfunctional state. Their analysis was as…
At last night’s Presidential Debate, “fact checker” Linsey Davis was completely wrong about Trump’s claim that some states allowed abortion after birth. As viewed on television and as reported many places, including the Boston Globe (boston.com), in an article published September 11, 2024, and titled “Tell Us: Who do you think won the Presidential Debate?”…
Even though considering many of life’s important questions have been raging now for more than 52 years, there seem to be more questions today than answers regarding human life! To help understand how the John Paul II Life and Family Center (JPII Life Center) works with people of ALL beliefs to understand the beauty and…
CNA—Arthur James Gregg, a convert to the Catholic faith who held the distinction of being the first Black American to achieve the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, died last month at 96. According to an obituary published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Gregg died on Aug. 22 in Richmond, Virginia. Born in South…
In one survey of grammarians, two words deemed to be among the most beautiful sounding in the English language were Agape and Philadelphia. The problem is that these actually are Greek. There also are many aphorisms in the English language that have become so familiar that one may not realize that their sources are in…
Book Review: “Sapiens Reinvented” by Dr. Jim Loehr Dr. Jim Loehr, the renowned performance psychologist and co-founder of the Human Performance Institute, who gained worldwide recognition for his groundbreaking, science-based energy management training system, has embarked on a profound journey with his latest book, Sapiens Reinvented: Saving the Species from a Deadly Evolutionary Flaw. A…
What can Catholic business professionals and diocesan priests learn from Trappist nuns in Muslim Indonesia? Quite a lot it turns out! CNA—As Pope Francis prepares to visit Indonesia, the founding superior of a monastery in Java shares what life is like for Catholics in a majority-Muslim country. Mary keeps her foot on the snakes When…
September 2, 2024 Repost from December 20, 2016—The maxim “It is always darkest before the dawn” supposedly dates to the seventeenth century, but sentiments like it have been around forever. Holy Mother Church moves it beyond the platitudinous “self-help” literature to the realm of fact. Coincident with the darkest days of the year, the birth of the Light…
Regardless of your political affiliation, regardless of your convictions about any of the issues before us in this election, and regardless of your agreement or disagreement with any points made, we at Catholic Business Journal strongly encourage you to take time to objectively listen to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s speech that suspends his presidential bid.…
CNA—August 9, 2023, marks the 78th anniversary of the second atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Japan, this time on Nagasaki, a city with a rich history of Christian martyrs from the 16th and 17th centuries. On the day “Fat Man,” the name of the bomb, was dropped, the small Japanese Catholic community …
CNA—When the American military dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, on Aug. 9, 1945, the city was completely devastated — more than 40,000 people were instantly killed by the blast as well as about 60,000 more in the following five years as a result of radiation-related diseases. Nagasaki Catholics had just gathered for Mass…
CNA—Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Catholics in the United States are helping to fund the replacement of a cathedral bell destroyed in the Nagasaki blast. The two U.S. bombings represent the only use of atomic weaponry in combat to date. The bombing of…
A Loss of Trust. Bombarded recently by social media and the print media for decades, at least three generations of American youth have been fed information they could not rely on as correct or true. That bombarded information has become embedded in their brains and they have accepted it as correct and true. Particularly over…
