Floods.
Hurricane Isaac is approaching the Gulf shores of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama as I write. Isaac reminds me of the storm and monsoon rains which hit Manila while I was there a couple weeks ago.
Manila’s storms turned the entire region into a huge flood plane. Homes, businesses,...
August 2, 2012, was the 50th anniversary celebration of the Franciscan seminary in the Philippines. In 1962 Our Lady of the Angels opened its doors to the first class of seminarians. Br. Clete Riederer and I flew to Manila to represent our Cincinnati-based Franciscan province at the golden jubilee...
The reports about the debt crisis are endless, and the arguments seem ideological. National debt here in the United States will be a major political issue in the presidential campaign. But the debt crisis in the European Union seems more destabilizing. Will the EU fall apart? Will countries choose to leave...
The term “cradle Catholics” usually denotes those who were baptized in infancy and raised in the Catholic faith of their parents. I am a “cradle Catholic.” I was baptized a week after my birth, learned my prayers at home, went to church with my parents and siblings every Sunday and attended our...
On May 30 I had a phone call from Pennsylvania. The caller could not understand why the Catholic Church is so patient with sinners. He thinks people who don’t live their faith should be excommunicated. The same for those who don’t agree with all that the Church teaches—just “throw ’em out,” he...
