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Communist China has accelerated its policy of “sinicization” of religions, with the implementation of a new set of crippling rules which Christian leaders say spell danger for their people, particularly for underground Catholics.The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had announced last year that revised administrative measures on religions would come to in force from Feb. 1 across the country, covering all religions.  Among other things, the rules stipulate that each religion will be headed by a state-appointed conference, which will function as the supreme decision-making body for the respective religious group. “Does this aim to abolish the traditional church model headed by bishops and replace them with group conferences? If there is no Catholic head for a church, is it ...

Have you ever thought about the correlation of the time of day to the bad habits we have? While its not always the case, typically we are tempted the most during the night-time hours. Why is that? This isn’t a new idea, as the Bible plainly reveals the reason why it is sometimes difficult to remain virtuous in physical darkness. The man who dishonors his marriage bed says to himself, “Who can see me? Darkness surrounds me, walls hide me, no one sees me. Who can stop me from sinning?” (Sirach 23:18) For thinking that in their secret sins they were unobserved behind a dark curtain of forgetfulness. (Wisdom 17:3) Think about it for a few minutes. What bad habits do you have? Are there any “pet sins” that are difficult for you to stop? What time of day is it easiest for you...

Last night I was honored to be the guest speaker at the fund raising gala for the Fr Capodanno School High School in Pinehurst, NC. The school is an independent Catholic start up with only a handful of students, but like most of these entrepreneurial Catholic enterprises it is full of energy, youth, enthusiasm, solid Catholic faith and a joyful hope for the future. This is one of the things I love most about American Catholicism. On the one hand you have the old Catholic establishment. They have their big colleges in the Northeast. They have their bureaucracies, diocesan structures, big budgets, big donors and all that boring stuff. They also have, for hte most part, a secular, materialistic, liberal American mindset. They run the show using lawyers, insurance companies, fund raising profe...

The liturgical focus of the Feast of the Presentation, which we celebrate today, is light. Christ is our light, and the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light! In the Gospel, Simeon holds the infant Jesus and calls Him “a light for revelation to the Gentiles.” Thus, this feast has long featured the carrying of candles by the faithful in procession and the blessing of candles. For this reason, the feast was often called Candlemas. Today’s feast celebrates the “purification” of Our Lady. As a Jewish woman, she presented herself forty days after giving birth to be blessed and welcomed back to the community. I have written more on the history of that practice here: The Churching of Women. In this reflection, we will attend to four teachings or perspectives gleaned from the ...

The great Catholic educator St. John Bosco was known to suffocate his students with love. This meant that he identified and affirmed his students as children created in the image and likeness of God. Part of this unique approach was instilling in his students a sense of moral discipline, the use of reason and the study of religion. St. John Bosco was not passive in his approach with “his boys” in many respects he was a strict disciplinarian who had little tolerance for disobedience, and he was not shy of expressing his displeasure with their behavior when warranted. The Method of St. John Bosco One of St. John’s Bosco’s education tenets was the art of dialogue. He would consistently establish relationships with his students by way of dialogue e.g. learning their ways, attitudes, and inclin...