Losing Canada

When the cross atop Mount Royal was first erected in 1924, the Montreal Gazette described it as “a memorial to the survival of the Canadian people, whose...

Pope Saint John Paul II’s Last Lent

Here is Pope Saint John Paul II’s final Lenten meditation, which he finished on September 8th, 2004 – the birthday of Our Lady -...

The Layered Meaning of the Prodigal Son

In 1861, John William Burgon, the (Anglican) dean of Chichester cathedral, preached a sermon in Christ Church cathedral, Oxford, that...

Justice in the Prodigal Son

So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with...

Instant Conversion

One feature of the Gospel for this Fifth Sunday of Lent has intrigued many readers: Jesus’s writing on the ground with his finger. For...

A Letter to a Catholic School Teacher

(What follows is adapted from a letter of a parish priest, Father Scott Murray, to a Catholic school teacher, in the publicly-funded, separate system,...

The Ratzinger Report Revisited

The Italian journalist and Catholic convert Vittorio Messori in 1985 published his two hundred page interview with Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict...

Providence and a Thief’s Goodness

Last year on Palm Sunday we heard the passion from Saint Mark’s Gospel, and next year it will be from Saint Matthew. Each is...

Pope Saint John Paul II’s Last Passion Sunday

(This is the last of Pope Saint John Paul II's Passion-Palm Sunday homilies, given in 2004, before his own passion and death the following...

The Real and Present Presence of Christ

Often, the simplest facts are the most important—and the most frequently unadverted to. Take the Last Supper, for instance. Obviously, the Apostles had to...