|
|
March 15th, 2011
Question: I was in Africa and saw a bunch of priests and parishioners dancing and the offertory procession went on for a much longer time. While beautiful ...
|
|
|
December 24th, 2010
A friend stated that each Christmas his friends, who are Catholic, invite his family to dinner. They always eat fish. I think he mentioned the number 7. My husband who was raised Catholic from birth tells me that at Christmas his mother also served fish. He does not know if there was any particular reason for it and that was 40-50 years ago. Please enlighten me.
The custom of eating fish for Christmas is more a practice in certain ethnic communities rather than a mandate by the Catholic Church. The roots for the particular instance you mention lie in southern Italy-some ...
|
|
|
December 17th, 2009
Why do women no longer have to have their head covered while at mass? And why do some still do it?...
|
|
|
December 3rd, 2009
I teach religion in a secular college and have been asked to teach a course on Catholicism. I'm obviously somewhat limited here so ...
|
|
|
November 19th, 2009
Christianity emerged from Judaism, which itself rejected figurative religious art as being too much like idol worship (see Ex 20:3). But once Christianity ...
|
|
|
November 12th, 2009
Question: I am an African-American, and I was wondering whether it matters what race you are in order to be Catholic. Do you ...
|
|
|
October 14th, 2009
While your self-sufficiency and resourcefulness are admirable, starting your own porn site is problematic, even with limits. Before your body was yours, it was God’s creation.
Putting yourself out there in sexually suggestive ways compromises your ...
|
|
|
October 7th, 2009
Question: Can you tell me a bit about "Santa Ria"? What are its origins and does it have anything to do with the Catholic church?...
|
|
|
September 16th, 2009
In the most idealistic sense, a reporter investigates and writes stories that are in the public interest. But what is that interest, really? Does it ...
|
|
|
August 19th, 2009
This is more of a question of etiquette and personal taste than of religion or ethics! Some people are more tethered to their techno-gadgets than others. Some don’t want to be reachable every single moment. ...
|
|
|
August 12th, 2009
Not being God, it would be really arrogant to claim to know God’s mind. That being said, we’re taught by the church that love of neighbor—even in difficult circumstances—is fundamental to community. Those responsible for ...
|
|
|
August 5th, 2009
The premise of a foreclosure auction is that you’re looking to purchase a home cheaply. You get the low price due to the property repossessed for default then being resold to recoup whatever possible from ...
|
|
|
July 29th, 2003
A Perspective on the Cost of Denying Women Ordination
Nearly six years to the day that I received my first theology degree, I was back in Boston at an ordination (see box below).
I was at the Episcopal cathedral, not the Catholic one. Jen, a ...
|
|
|
April 18th, 2003
Better Luck Tomorrow Brings Welcome Complexity to Asian America
With this film, it's tempting, oh-so-tempting, to make the expected references to classic rock songs: "The Kids Are Alright." "Teenage Wasteland." "Another Brick in the Wall."
But that's not the world that spawned the kids of ...
|
|
|
March 15th, 2003
Practicing Resurrection for Easter
I regularly check into a community discussion board called craigslist. On the morning that Baghdad fell, almost as if staged for the world's all-seeing cameras, someone posted ...
|
|
|
January 26th, 2003
Sold on the Benefits of Online Dating
When, oh, when did online dating lose its stigma? When did it become the province of sexy nerds and closet punks, as well as the schlubs and the hipper-than-thou among us?
Who knows? Who cares? One ...
|
|
|
January 23rd, 2003
Ministering to the ‘Spiritual But Not Religious'
PART 1: THE HIRED GUN
"Can you imagine us doing this in a church?" I wasn't eavesdropping, but I did overhear Mina, ...
|
|
|
November 23rd, 2002
Thanksgiving Was Not the Über-Holiday for Us
It is November, and I am barreling headlong into the end of the year. But first, I have to make it past the Thanksgiving table.
Growing up working-class and Filipino here ...
|
|
|
November 20th, 2002
pc muñoz and the amen corner a good deed in a weary world (beevine records)
What is a good deed? What's the point of trying to be good in a world that's clearly a mess? And how do you even begin to do that?
These ...
|
