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No doubt, as Catholics, we’ve had conversations with our Protestant sisters and brothers about how the New Testament Canon of Scripture came to be. We can run the risk of falling prey to a strawman argument when, as Catholics, we think of our Protestant friends as merely asserting that the Bible “just dropped out of the sky.” While no one literally believes that, we think it is a light-hearted (even if hyperbolic) description of how our Protestant friends think the New Testament Canon materialized. We all recognize that the literary device of the analogy can be a powerful means to communicate a point. Oftentimes an analogy can make clear in a conversation what has been obscure and confusing. In a conversation once with a Protestant friend, this analogy of my grandma’s gumbo came to my imag...

Readings:Leviticus 13:1–2, 44–46Psalm 32:1–2, 5, 111 Corinthians 10:31–11:1Mark 1:40–45 In the Old Testament, leprosy is depicted as punishment for disobedience of God’s commands (see Numbers 12:12–15; 2 Kings 5:27; 15:5). Considered “unclean”—unfit to worship or live with the Israelites, lepers are considered “stillborn,” the living dead (see Numbers 12:12). Indeed, the requirements imposed on lepers in today’s First Reading—rent garments, shaven head, covered beard—are signs of death, penance, and mourning (see Leviticus 10:6; Ezekiel 24:17). So there’s more to the story in today’s Gospel than a miraculous healing. When Elisha, invoking God’s name, healed the leper, Naaman, it proved there was a prophet in Israel (see 2 Kings 5:8). Today’s healing reveals Jesus as far more than a great p...

A 17th-century rendering of the martyrdom of Paul Miki and Companions in Nagasaki, by an anonymous Japanese artist. (Image: Wikipedia) Many people know of the successful 16th-century establishment of the Church in Japan by Catholic missionaries, including St. Francis Xavier, and its repression by imperial authorities and eventual complete suppression of the Church by the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1620. Shusako Endo’s 1966 novel Silence depicted the brutality of the repression of Catholics in memorable scenes. Today’s feast of the first of the Japanese martyrs, St. Paul Miki, along with his companions (known as the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki), is representative of that brutality. Miki, a native Japanese who had joined the Jesuits and successfully made many converts, was sent on a forced march from ...

I recently attended a family wedding at the parish that I grew up in—a parish under the patronage of St. Patrick in a small, historically Irish and German midwestern town. It was an endearing reminder for me of how slowly things can change when it comes to liturgical practice—a double-edged sword that both serves to help preserve tradition but also makes efforts of renewal at times a serious practical challenge.  In my youth, I remember hearing and singing one of two possible Alleluias before the Gospel reading on just about any Sunday: either the Mode 6 chant alleluia (you know the one) at a drearily slow tempo, or the “Celtic Alleluia,” which is a bit more lively with a lilting 6/8 rhythm. I am not sure that I could have been convinced at the time that any other Alleluia had ever be...

Bishop Robert Mark Pipta, a former seminary rector and priest of the Eparchy of Phoenix, is the Ruthenian Bishop of Parma, Ohio. The three duties (munera) of a bishop are to teach, sanctify and govern. To teach, a bishop needs “intellectual humility,” so he teaches recognizing his own weakness. To sanctify, a bishop needs to remind his people of the unseen realm and always strive to bring people into an encounter with the holy. To govern, a bishop needs to be in tune with the Holy Spirit, who gives strength and wisdom to govern God’s holy people. These ideas were expressed by Bishop John Michael Botean to the newly ordained Bishop Robert Mark Pipta during the homily at the Divine Liturgy for the Ordination and Enthronement of a new bishop for the Eparchy of Parma for the Ruthenians on Nov....