On this day, September 9, the Church honors a Jesuit missioner who was one of the greatest saints of the New World. Saint Peter Claver never left the port city of Cartagena after his ordination there in 1615. His superior in Spain had sent him directives five years before to “make haste” for New Granada (Colombia) to assist another missionary who was overwhelmed by work.  Read More »

As has already been noted on the SBC website, Archduke Otto von Habsburg, who in 1916 became heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, has died. I’d like to offer a couple of additional thoughts.

The Archduke passed away in his sleep at his home in Bavaria during the night of July 3-4. He was 98. He lived long enough to see his father, Emperor Karl I, beatified, and for a cause for the canonization of his mother, Empress Zita, to be officially opened. Read More »

It is probably safe to say that everyone reading this knows of the famous preacher on Boston Common of the 1950’s, Father Leonard Feeney, and of the religious brothers who accompanied him there each Sunday.  Father preached the unvarnished truth of the Catholic Faith and was eventually silenced and banished by the powers that be of the Archdiocese of Boston for that courageous act.  A generation earlier, another Catholic “street preacher” did the same on the streets of Boston with the whole-hearted stamp of approval of Cardinal O’Connell, the reigning Archbishop of the city at the time. Read More »

In the book, Black Elk Speaks by John G. Neihardt, Americans were treated to a hefty dose of pagan American spirituality. Paul Harvey-like, I would venture to tell “the rest of the story.” In brief, it is this: the famed Lakota Sioux medicine man, warrior, and adventurer (who traveled to England to perform for the Queen) converted to Catholicism, was baptized “Nicholas,” and taught his kinsman the true religion.

The book Black Elk: Holy Man of the Oglala by Michael F. Steltenkamp seeks to tell that part of the story so often left out. There exists a review of this book online: Black Elk, Catholic Catechist: The Rest of the Story by Dennis Hamm, S.J. Read More »

Practically every American has heard of the storied railroad engineer of the late 1800’s, Casey Jones, made famous throughout the years in song, story, and film. But it is generally not known that he was baptized a Catholic at the age of twenty-two in Saint Bridget’s Church in Whistler, Alabama, near the coastal city of Mobile. Read More »

[The Conversion Stories of Knute Rockne and Ralph Metcalfe. "Crossing The Goal Line" by Knute Rockne, and "A Race Well Run" by Ralph H. Metcalfe, taken from Through Hundred Gates Imprimatur: Archbishop John McNicholas 1938.]

I used to be impressed by the sight of my players receiving Holy Communion every morning, and finally I made it a point to go to Mass with them on the morning of the game. I realized that it appeared more or less incongruous when we arrived in town for a game, for the general public to see my boys rushing off to Read More »

During the long years (1942-1978) in which I was privileged to associate with Father Feeney on a daily basis, I kept a record of statements he would make from time to time, in his sermons or lectures, or in ordinary conversation that struck me at that moment as proceeding from a deep mystical realization or apprehension. I felt an irresistible impulse to record these sayings that same day. Read More »

Born in a mining camp in the high Sierras of California, Catherine Malone was the daughter of poor Irish immigrants who came to America in the early 1860’s. The child was born on Christmas Eve, 1863, and had no memory of her parents. What happened to them is unknown; their deaths were apparently not recorded – just two of many expendable poor Irish in America. Providentially, for her and the world, from the age of three, Catherine was raised by the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul who ran a school and orphanage in Virginia City, Nevada. Catherine’s earliest memories were of the lovely white cornettes of the sisters, who must have seemed ministering angels to their children. Read More »

I remember while attending Brother Francis’ philosophy courses in the 1980s how excited he got over an article written by Father John C. Ford on the philosophy of Chief Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. The article was quite long, forty or more pages, but he read from it each class until he finished it. It was titled “Totalitarian Justice Holmes.” Sometime earlier Father Ford had exposed Holmes’ pragmatic materialist philosophy in another scathing review, “The Fundamentals of  Holmes’ Juristic Philosophy.” Read More »

Film critic and columnist Roger Ebert penned a column for his blog at the Chicago Sun-Times, My Vocation as a Priest. It’s a benevolent, slightly sentimental look at his Catholic upbringing. At one time, he considered the priestly vocation. But it turns out he was one of those, “whose mother had the vocation” — to use the words of an old priest I knew. Not only did Roger Ebert not become a priest, he lost his Catholic Faith outright. Certain aspects of his column — well written, as one would expect — show the glories of pre-Vatican II American Catholicism in all their splendor.  For instance, he pays tribute to the Church’s aesthetic aspect when he says: Read More »