These few remaining days before Easter are the most sacred time of every year.  I began writing this column to explain what the word “holy” in Holy Week means.  But actions often speak and teach more loudly than words. On Friday, March 23, an Islamist gunman in southern France attacked a supermarket.  A jihadist loyal […]

Estos días restantes antes de Pascua son el momento más sagrado de cada año.

Dear Friends, Now that this year’s observance of Passover is approaching, I want to extend to the local Jewish community my prayerful best wishes as you enter into this sacred time. I do so united with all the Catholics of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

I’ve admired and respected his keen focus on service to the poor since we first met as young bishops delegated to the 1997 Special Assembly for the Americas.

“Billy Graham navigated a century of turbulent conflict and change with the message of the Gospel and a zeal that made him one of the great Christian presences in American history.  His witness to Jesus Christ reached across denominational lines and inspired millions.  May God grant him eternal joy and peace, and may the example […]

“Nineteen years ago I sat with the parents of children murdered in the Columbine High School massacre, and buried some of their dead.  Nothing seems to change, no matter how brutal the cost. 

«Hace diecinueve años, que me senté con los padres de niños asesinados en la masacre de Columbine High School y enterré algunos de sus muertos. Nada parece cambiar, no importa el costo brutal. Suceden cosas terribles; se hacen declaraciones piadosas, y la nación regresa a sus propias y absorbentes distracciones. La última masacre en el […]

La historia es una gran maestra, a veces de maneras inusuales y muy personales.

History is a great teacher, sometimes in unusual and very personal ways.  Here’s an example. Reading the Reichskonkordat (“Reich concordat” with the German state) today, 85 years after its 1933 signing, sparks some interesting thoughts.  Structured as a treaty to govern the relations between the Holy See and German government, the text is remarkably positive.  […]

Nearly everyone trying to understand the current government turmoil in Washington is either (a) pre-committed to one or the other political party’s version of events; or (b) thoroughly confused.  Most of us fall more or less in the second group.  And that means a great many citizens end up feeling powerless, then disgusted, then angry.  […]