Jeanie Hannaman

By Patti Maguire Armstrong, EWTN News - In her classic book The Interior Castle, St. Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite mystic and doctor of the Church, shared her experiences with contemplative prayer, describing seven stages of growing union with God, comparing it to a castle with seven “mansions.”

By Russell Shaw, The Catholic Thing - Tentler, an emerita professor of history at the Catholic University of America, explains the hiatus like this: “For many of the intervening years, the U.S. hierarchy was riven by conflict, principally but not exclusively over the question of just how accommodating of American values the Catholic Church in the United States could be.” And, she adds, “various players in this ongoing drama. . .bypassed their brother bishops entirely, as they pursued their disparate goals, cultivating allies in Rome.”