A certain gentleman I know told me that his young son is attending a private Catholic school that is run independently of the diocesan or religious order systems. He and his wife were evidently happy with the school: "It is a much more loving place, no Baltimore Catechism sort of thing." Aside from the fact that [...]

Because my parents' marriage failed early, I spent my childhood with my great-aunt Mamie Schlumbrecht and her husband, Albert, on a five-acre chicken farm outside Abita Springs, Louisiana. Abita, which is about 35 miles north of New Orleans in St. Tammany Parish, is now a chic town -- the famous home of an excellent microbrewed [...]

  For anyone who strongly identifies with traditional Christianity, the October 6-9 series on Fox News's Hannity, with Sean Hannity interviewing Michael Moore, was rich in irony and vaguely distressing. The occasion was Moore's new film, Capitalism: A Love Story.   Two bright, likable, and deeply sincere married men of middle age passionately argued the [...]

"Cree-yate in meeeeee a cleeeen heart, Oh Gahhhhhd!" That's the responsorial my parish sang every Sunday of Lent, until the events of Holy Week moved us to Passion. No "Let my tongue be silenced if I ever forget you!" for us. Too drastic a proposition for our music minister, I guess. Whether it suited the [...]

In most years, Epiphany marks the real beginning of winter here in northern Illinois. November and December roll along, as temperatures drop and the days grow shorter, but the weather that we normally associate with the Upper Midwest -- days-long snowstorms, blowing winds, bitter temperatures -- make their appearance about the same time as the [...]

Late spring and summer become, with age, times of commemoration. Class reunions, anniversaries of one graduation or another and, for many, a visit to the town where we grew up. Some move from a small town to the city, but I went from Minneapolis — which, together with St. Paul and the swarming suburbs, makes [...]