St. Maria Catherine Kasper felt deeply called to religious life as a young girl, but delayed pursuing the call to take responsibility for her family. Born in Dernbach, Germany, in 1820, Catherine missed school frequently, completing only two full years of formal education. Her writings reveal that she was “just a little girl” when experiencing [...]
By Junno Arocho Esteves In an Apostolic Letter dedicated to sacred Scripture, Pope Francis said that, even today, Christians can learn new things from the countless translations of the Bible that exist. The variety of translations of the Bible in the world today “teaches us that the values and positive forms of every culture represent [...]
By Jim Berlucchi When our work team has to make business decisions, we often struggle and get stuck, sometimes because of emotions and strong opinions. Is there a better way? There is. But it requires that your colleagues genuinely value three things: rationality, knowledge, and humble curiosity. Aristotle called humans rational animals. Emotions have their [...]
By Father Joe Krupp DEAR FATHER JOE: Unlike in most parishes, my priest did not appear to minister during the COVID pandemic. I feel abandoned, so why should I go back to my parish? I understand the sense of betrayal and sorrow, I do. I ministered to many people during the height of the quarantine [...]
By Pete Burak Anyone else remember the gut-wrenching feeling of watching the polar bears at the zoo, tugging on the pant leg next to you, looking up excitedly to share the moment with Dad, only to see a stranger’s face looking down at you? Or walking down an unfamiliar path in the dead of night [...]
By Patricia Majher Give thanks for pie; sometimes, a single pastry can bring generations together. During the 1910s, a young wife in South Dakota thought she’d save money on the cost of a fancy, printed cookbook by making up a volume of her own. Using an old, hardcover medical book as a base, she painstakingly [...]
Encyclical of Pope Francis In his third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, On Fraternity and Social Friendship, Pope Francis focuses on many of the issues that serve to fracture our relationships with each other and with society. Released on the eve of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the eight-chapter papal document studies the effects of our social ills and proposes [...]
By Joe Pisani During the last two presidential elections, we learned one thing — you can’t trust the pollsters. How could they be so consistently wrong? However, there was one poll that gave me a reason to be hopeful about the future ... and it had nothing to do with political views. RealClear Opinion Research [...]
Archbishop Leonard P. Blair This edition of the Transcript comes to you during Advent. It is the Church season that signifies expectation, preparation and hope. Our Savior Jesus Christ came on the first Christmas, and now we wait in joyful expectation for him to come again in glory to judge the living [...]