Despite the world’s fascination with All Things Papal, there isn’t much out there about papal humor. Which is, in a sense, entirely understandable: it takes a certain breadth of imagination, shall we say, to imagine Gregory XVI or Pius XI telling a joke (much less telling one on himself). Blessed John XXIII is an exception,...Read More

VATICAN CITY – Specific synod suggestions for a common Catholic-Orthodox celebration of Easter, wider authority for Eastern Catholic patriarchs – including participation in conclaves to elect a pope - and the need for local dialogue with Muslims and Jews were repeated in the midterm report of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East.Read More

Two postcard portraits of the recently-beatified John Henry Newman have graced my office for years. One is a miniature painted by Sir William Charles Ross in 1845, the year of Newman’s reception into the Catholic Church. The second, by Emmeline Dean, gives us the aged cardinal, a year before his death in 1890. Between those...Read More

Let the Gospel surprise you. That was the message Archbishop Edwin F. O’Brien had Oct. 6 and 9 for 445 clergy, religious and lay people working in Archdiocese of Baltimore parish, school and Catholic Center ministries.Read More