What should I do for Lent? Let’s start by slamming some really bad advice you’re likely to get: Instead of giving something up for Lent, do something extra! No! Don’t. Let me tell you why. To start with, the term “Lent” means exactly the opposite of “do something extra.” It means, “do less.” It comes from the Latin word, “lentare,” which means, “to stand-down, to back-off, to slow-down, or to stop.” Our English word “relent”
I often here pro-life people say that those who promote abortion, have abortions, or provide abortions “aren’t bad people.” “They mean well,” it’s said, “but they don’t understand the error of their ways.” I agree, that may be so in some cases. We’ve all heard stories of people who genuinely had no idea what abortion actually involves and who stopped supporting it once they found out. We all know, however, that plenty of people on
Ask almost any Catholic you meet what the season of Advent is all about and you’re likely to get the response, “preparing for Christmas,” or “preparing for the birth of Christ.” Advent ends with the Feast of the Nativity or our Lord, after all, which is the first feast of the Christmas season. But, in fact, the primary purpose of Advent is to prepare for Christ’s “second coming” or Parousia. Does Advent have anything to
Controversy arose recently, when Fr. Arturo Sosa Abascal, S.J., the Superior General of the Society of Jesus, declared that the devil is only a symbol of evil, not an actual personal entity. This reading of Fr. Sosa’s comments isn’t a matter of interpretation. He was explicit: “He [that is, the devil,] exists as the personification of evil in different structures, but not in persons, because he is not a person; he is a manner of
In our time, most Catholic Schools in the United States, from the lowest to the highest levels of education, seek accreditation from secular, regional accrediting agencies. These agencies require schools to undertake extensive self-studies in which they examine virtually everything they do. Basically, they have to think about and be ready to explain, everything they possess, everything they spend, every course they teach, and every major and minor in which students can study. In virtually
