Friday, January 9, 2026

Remembering Fr. Joseph Escribano (May 31, 1933–June 25, 2023)

I first met Father Joseph Escribano (affectionately known as simply “Fr. Joe”) in 2014. From that moment forward, he played an important role in...

Dr. Frances Kelsey and Thalidomide

On this August 7th, back in 1962, Frances Oldham Kelsey, a Canadian-American physician/pharmacologist (who hailed from bucolic and beautiful Cobble Hill, on Vancouver Island,...

The Myth of “Hitler’s Pope”

Now and then we hear someone who is not well educated in history complain that Hitler was a Catholic and that the Vatican was...

Bach’s Incomparable Chaconne

The final, fourth movement of Bach's partita for violin in D minor, composed between 1717 and 1720, is often called 'the chaconne', even if...

Science and Religion: Natural Enemies, or Best Friends Forever?

For Blaise Pascal, a seventeenth century mathematician and scientist, faith in God is the most necessary and therefore the most reasonable thing in the...

The Legacy of Pope Saint John Paul II

It was nineteen years ago, at 9.37 pm, when Pope St John Paul, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, left this vale of tears...

The Church is Eucharistic in Her Very Essence

O Sacred banquet in which Christ is received, the memory of His Passion is renewed, the mind is filled with grace, and a pledge...

Saint Cyril and Our Lady

Today is the traditional feast of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, signified in one of the most famous ‘icons’ of the Virgin Mother, which,...

“Verso L ’Alto” – A Meditation on the Hidden Sanctity of Pier Giorgio Frassati

The Italian Alps — that formidable stretch of Europe’s great mountain arc — rise in dramatic splendour above the landscape that so enduringly shaped...

A Hallowed Eve: The Spiritual and Cultural Traditions of Halloween  

Halloween has always been a complicated holiday, laced together with many threads of different spiritual traditions and cultural customs. It has always stirred up...