Above: three lay fathers issue their articles of resistance to Pope Francis at the CIC Conference, MMXXII. Photo by Allison Girone. At the risk of oversimplification, I do believe that the present crisis in the Church can be boiled down to a crisis of fatherhood. First, the fathers of the Liberal revolutions (beginning with John…
Author’s note: Since writing “Take Me to the Pigs: Finding Hope in Dark Times” last November, I got engaged to the very same boyfriend and joyfully married him in a TLM wedding on July 27. God is good! My little baby, Your father and I’d been married less than six weeks when we discovered that…
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…
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…
I’ve quipped that I know I’m truly Catholic because I anticipate the St. Andrew prayer novena as part of our Advent season while still cleaning up Thanksgiving dishes. I have found rote recitation of prayers written by others to be a precious part of my life. Prescribed prayers, even when spoken (or during difficult times,…
A distant but rapidly approaching thunderstorm awakens me from a deep sleep. I toss and turn and lie there, but find every attempt to return to sleep a futile effort, so I at last decide to take the pregnancy test that has been on my mind all afternoon. I wait, staring at the little window, willing…
