It was rumored that Tina Turner hated her mega-hit, not so much because it exposed her as a victim of spousal abuse but rather, because it seemingly elevated the pleasure of carnal physical desire above attainment of emotional happiness.  “What’s love got to do with it” could also be a significant question in understanding, more […]

Father Michael White, pastor,  and pastoral associate, Tom Corcoran, introduce their famous book, Rebuilt: Awakening the Faithful, Reaching the Lost, Making Church Matter, with an outline of American consumerism as it took place within the Catholic Church in our nation’s history.  In their analysis, ours is a church that responded to the needs of impoverished […]

Whenever a survey or census wants me to check the box of my religious preference, I usually select “Catholic;” for that is the religion I usually prefer—though I admit I have had moments when it didn’t seem like my favorite.  Nevertheless, it’s the one I’ve known longest, the one of which I am most familiar.  […]

IF you live in Kansas City, and IF you want to give deeper meaning to your Lent and your life, and IF you are available this Saturday and willing to miss a couple hours of March Madness Basketball, I highly recommend that you stop over at Miege High School for a Lenten Day of Retreat […]

About twelve years ago, as Bishop Raymond Boland was retiring from episcopal leadership in the Catholic Church, he gave a major address on the topic of polarization.  On his way out, he wanted to warn us about this horrible disease that undermines the integrity of both our society and church, how it bubbled up with […]

Bullies and predators want their targets to become victims by submission to their nefarious assertions. Psychology tells us that, when facing danger, we have two options: fight or flight.  Jesus tells us that there is a third way that will often work.  His third way is what propelled Mohandas Gandhi and the Reverend Martin Luther […]

As the third Christian millennium gets underway, we gain a healthy perspective of the history of church development.  The Seven Sacraments, for example, were not formulated till the middle of the fifteenth century around the Council of Florence.  Baptism and Eucharist, the two sacraments we share with our Protestant brothers and sisters, were foundational and […]

I will be the first to admit that I am not an educator—though four decades ago I did, actually, receive a degree in education and for the past thirty years have been in parishes that operated schools.  I have my own opinions about what is effective and what is not, what students need and what […]

 Like many pastors, I have become a fan of Rebuilt, a chronicle of how a Catholic faith community in Maryland went from a state of dying to being fully alive again.  The story of survival and revival gets told by the pastor, Father Michael White, and pastoral associate, Tom Corcoran.  The condition in which they […]

Standing before the many issues at Saint Charles Borromeo Parish might be like standing before many mountains: I’m concerned with loose rock, sharp edges, difficult trajectories, and a seemingly impossible chance of reaching the destination.  Some of the mountains here are material, like the money problems and buildings issues, but many others are spiritual and […]