Father Robert Cassidy was my first pastor at Sacred Heart Church, Pawtucket, 45 years ago. While others might use less kind words, I will write that he was very strict. more

C. S. Lewis was the consoling voice of the BBC on Sunday evenings during London’s dreaded blitz during the Second World War. His sensible, basic, wartime religious themes are found today in his still popular book, Mere Christianity. Lewis also penned the lighter “The Screw Tape Letters” in which the devil guides a novice demon through the steps of effective temptation. The Oxford professor also wrote “The Chronicles of Narnia,” with a sort of early Harry Potter theme, made into a movie in 2005. As an insightful Christian, Professor Lewis once astutely and shrewdly observed that religion is ten percent faith and ninety percent culture. The history of the past half century more than confirms this insight. more

During this past summer Pope Francis made a much publicized journey to Canada, chiefly Western Canada, where he lamented and atoned for what he termed the “cultural genocide” visited on … more

A news item told of two homosexual partners from Israel who brought the sperm of one of them to a clinic in India, where the sperm was used to fertilize an egg taken from one woman and then implanted in the womb of another woman. more

Students of Scripture know that Jesus preached more than 40 parables. Some of these thematic tales, like the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan, are rather lengthy. Others, like the Pearl of Great Price and the Treasure Hidden in the Field, are quite brief. more

Our freshman class at Our Lady of Providence Seminary at Warwick Neck in 1958 was greeted by a senior class that this year is celebrating its 50th anniversary of ordination. more

Jesus was truly a man of the people. The Master intermingled not only with the poor, handicapped and humble, but was regularly in the company of the Scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees and even the … more

Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke, as well as St. Paul, recall the institution of the Holy Eucharist in their Gospel narratives in phrases that fairly well parallel the words of consecration heard every … more

Certainly among the most affectionate of Christian images is the depiction of Jesus Christ as the Good Shepherd. Woolly lambs cozying up to the Savior’s knee and the Master himself embracing a … more

Each beatitude proclaimed in this Sunday’s liturgy celebrates a deficiency. That’s right. Jesus, through the pen of St. Matthew, honors our brothers and sisters in faith who lack some portion of life and whom others might dismiss. more

I say bring back the Cappa Magna. more

A peculiar idea that surfaces from time to time is the notion that Jesus Christ never intended to found an actual Church. A few have proposed over the years that Jesus came simply to announce a Gospel of salvation and reconciliation. more

At her final appearance to the children at Fatima, the Blessed Virgin Mary confidently and reassuringly declared, “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” When the turmoil of the past one … more

One standard of the Christmas season for both the secular and the believing worlds is an annual performance of George Frederick Handel’s oratorio, “The Messiah.” The Boston Symphony … more

While the Franciscans and the Dominicans were busy evangelizing South America and French Jesuits were converting the Hurons of Quebec and Ontario, other zealous Jesuits were reaching out to the … more

Good Shepherd Sunday is the ideal occasion to recall that the ecumenical movement within Christianity began in earnest in the 1920s when the various Protestant communities met to discuss agreements and disagreements concerning the Christian faith and similarities and differences regarding church order. more

This will certainly be a most challenging Quiet Corner. Not because some church or parish official will be called to task or some personal misstep will be revealed, but because the subject matter at … more

St. Paul is clearly stressed in the second reading from Romans at Mass this coming Sunday that his Jewish brothers and sisters did not accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of all mankind. The … more

Jesus lived daily with the unhappy prospect of being rejected by many of his own Jewish people and of being tortured and crucified by the local Roman authorities. Three times during his public life Jesus predicted his rejection by the Jews and his suffering by the Romans. The triple citations in St. Mark’s Gospel are very easily remembered: Mark 8:31, 9:31 and 10:33. more

About five hundred years before Christ the ancient temple in Jerusalem underwent a major renovation. During this renewal a copy of the Book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the present Bible, was … more