How It All Got Started

I have mentioned in a previous blog that in the newsroom of the newspaper where I worked for 22 years was a sign that read, “If your mother says she ...

What Does Faith Offer?

My beloved paternal grandmother, Julia, who died in 1957, had what I’ve heard identified as “late-onset Alzheimer’s.” In other words, she had a kind of dementia that happens late in ...

The First Stone

If you have been attending Catholic Mass or a Christian service, at least weekly, as long as I have, you will have heard the same stories from the Bible over ...

Passion or Fanaticism?

I’m an amateur musician, with the emphasis on amateur. Over 50 years ago, I taught myself to play the guitar, learning the chords and a couple of “picking” methods, and ...

Relentless Mind and Searching Soul

Jason Blakely grew up in a middle-class family in a suburb of Denver. His father was a fierce critic of religion, though not an atheist. His mother was a practicing ...

Should the Church Cause Trouble?

On the 24th of last month, many Catholics, and perhaps some others, observed the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador. Many of you may never have ...