Dear Fathers, I want you to know, even though I and many others are very angry right now, I was brought up to trust you. To revere you. To see you as intrinsically worthy of respect and honor. Even of obedience. There is no memory I possess, no matter how far back, in which I…
Our parish has sixty-two programs, projects, and ministries. I counted them. Have you miscarried? There’s a project for that. Do you struggle with pornography? A parish ministry can help you. Don’t have enough to eat? We have a program to assist you. What if you are in your seventies or older and feeling abandoned by…
Walking out of church this week, I noticed a pile of free children’s pamphlets/Mass supplements at the door. I was so annoyed by this smushy and blobby cover that I picked it up to see if the inside was just as annoying. It was. And it got worse. (This item will be listed as Nameless…
For some time now, the comment has been coming from the direction of Pope Francis’s supporters and defenders that papal critics often are converts. For some reason, that seems for them to be a defect. Austen Ivereigh, among others, has now put this argument in the form of an article for Crux: “Pope Francis and…
Editor’s note: we received the following letter from “Alice”, a woman who was born in Asia and adopted by an American couple at seven months of age. She grew up Catholic. Then, several months before she was to graduate high school, her adoptive mother “dropped a bomb on our family.” She had decided to leave her husband…
Editor’s note: this poem was submitted to us by Jeffrey Klump, a 1P5 reader whose wife Maria passed away in April, 2016 from complications arising from multiple myeloma cancer. Today would have been her 52nd birthday. Please, in your kindness, offer a prayer for the repose of Maria’s soul and the consolation and intentions of her…
In this world that has accepted that EVERYONE goes to Heaven, that there is no right or wrong, and all actions are fine as long as they don’t “hurt” anyone, what about St. Monica? Do we believe she is a saint? Do we believe in the merit of her unceasing prayers and tears? Why was…
I am forcing myself to watch a Muslim killer at work, A hooded Muslim slashing another Muslim’s throat. He is using a dull knife. I force myself to watch the video over and over. It is the least I can do. I pray that death comes quickly For the Muslim man whose neck is too…
O practiced hand of theory, ever taking paths that lead to “useful,” even making knowledge of divine like kit instructions turning points of dogma into functions: Away! and take your scheming sermons with you. I will not hear conclusions that your myth drew. For I seek wisdom, truth, illumination — but you say truth depends…
If man is haphazardly here, an accident in the night of the universe’s thoughtless dream, I suppose liberty is being unfettered, choosing one’s own way, determining one’s own meaning, taking advantage of the time, carpe diem. So little time, so many options. Gold? Guns? Girls? Metric asks, “Is it ever gonna be enough?” This is…
Editor’s note: the following is a work of speculative fiction. It was originally published in the April, 2002 issue of New Oxford Review. It has been reprinted with permission. Cite de Dio The Feast of The Holy Innocents, A.D. 2032 My Dearest Miguel, Oh, how I yearn to see your face again Miguel, my first-born…
