Catholic Church

By Catholic News Agency - In face of the sex-abuse scandals in the Church, Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix issued a column this month asking the question: “What went wrong in priestly formation?”... Bishop Thomas Olmsted highlighted in his Feb. 17 column at The Catholic Sun three factors that contributed to the clerical sexual-abuse scandal: the sexual revolution, weak seminaries and clericalism... He said the sexual revolution, which in the 1960s challenged the ethics of sexual behaviors in the West, had sought to promote a false idea of “free love.”

By Stephen Beale, Catholic Exchange - It is comforting to know that God has a plan for our lives that is part of His grander plan for all of creation. What is odd about it is how different His thoughts are from ours. Usually we find comfort in knowing someone is thinking on the same page as us. We want our business partners, coworkers, teammates, and spouses to be thinking about things the way we do. But not so with God: His thoughts are not our thoughts. And, in a way, that is comforting.

By K. Albert Little, Patheos - Well, if somebody insisted on inviting you to Mass and you insist on going allow me to at least provide a short, yet exceptionally handy, guide to a Roman Catholic Mass. I can’t cover everything—there are some great resources for that—but I can give you a few insider tips to help you get the most out of your experience… The Mass is a Foretaste of Heaven…

By Fr. Mike Schmitz, Ascension Press - Fr. Mike knows the tricks we can play on ourselves when it comes to picking something for Lent. So he gives a straightforward guideline: Don’t pick something that’s arbitrary. Pick something that is necessary... In other words, don’t say you’re giving up watermelon when you know you will hardly eat watermelon anyway; and don’t give up hot showers if you know cold showers actually won’t help you grow in holiness. We can easily fool ourselves into thinking strictness equates to holiness. Likewise, we can fall into the trap of thinking that the easiest thing will be the most helpful.