Three nights ago, a pizza parlor owner was killed with a gun during a robbery in my neighborhood. This husband, and father of three small children, was building a unique business for himself. I was a loyal customer and fan of his unique pizzas. The shock and anger I feel as I type this has not subsided since...
The other day, our intern, Rich Meyer, and I participated in a national media conference, via telephone, from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The topic: immigration legislation. There is currently an overhaul of US immigration law being proposed, one that will wend its way through Congress in the...
This week in one of our planning meetings for St. Anthony Messenger magazine, we engaged in an interesting discussion about gender roles, stemming from a mention of the recent Steubenville rape case.
Gender has been in the news a lot lately, as Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg promotes (and defends) her...
I have jury duty this week and next. When I received the summons to report for jury duty I groaned, but I also felt obliged to serve. Such service is demanded by the state for the common good of our society. Being called for jury duty reminds me of the fact that rights and duties are linked.
As the Catholic...
I think I used to like football. Until about 7 o’clock Sunday night.
I got past the weeks of pre-game build-up, past the hours of pre-game talk. I got past the “sports commentators” saying things like (and I had the closed captioning on to make sure I was getting this right) “a guy...
I have been spending a lot of time while trying to fall asleep at night wondering about hypocrisies—not just other people’s, but especially from myself. I recently rediscovered the transcript of a sermon given back in 1993 from the late Bishop Carl Moeddel, while he was then pastor at my parish of St....
