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If we find the penance of Lent makes us a bit uncomfortable, perhaps we need to look again at the life of St. Paul. This is, as we probably know by now, the Year of St. Paul. But how much do we really know about Paul? Allow me to quote just a couple of paragraphs of Rev. Norman Langenbrunner. He writes: “Luke reports that within days of Paul’s acceptance of Jesus Christ, the new preacher had stirred up the Jews in Damascus to the point that they wanted to kill him, and he had to sneak out of town” (Acts 9:23).

I always held a heart of admiration for Sister Mary Reginald Gerdes, an Oblate Sister of Providence. She was our homeroom and biology teacher in our junior year at St. Frances Academy. She was no one whom you would want to be on the wrong side of. She disciplined with her words, and let’s not forget her body language, which could correct individuals and a group in just one glance. Sister Reginald, known even today, is fiercely honest and positively challenging. Conversations with Sister Reginald will leave you looking for deeper meaning below the surface of the words articulated at the same time as challenging one to move to a higher level of understanding. Today, she spends most of her free time researching black Catholic history in the United States and teaching others what she has discovered from the witness of the faithful. Yes, she is a great historian and a great teacher who understands how the human stories of people of faith can redesign human history. Perhaps this is why I stood in awe of her, utterly amazed of how she served as an agent of encouragement and evangelization one day last month.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is accepting comments until April 9 on its move to rescind a Bush administration regulation giving federal protection to the conscience rights of health care providers.

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI has written a letter to the world’s bishops defending his decision to lift the excommunications of four traditionalist bishops and expressing regret that it gave rise to misunderstandings and polemics, according to Italian newspapers.

Ordained in 1961, Father William A. Collins imagined he would always be a parish priest.

I’ve noticed that there are some Catholic politicians who will say that they are against the death penalty because it goes against their Catholic beliefs that all life is sacred and that no one should take another person’s life.

In the wake of the Maryland Senate’s rejection of a ban on the death penalty, repeal advocates are shifting their attention to the House of Delegates where the Judiciary Committee is expected to take up the controversial issue in a March 17 hearing.

HARTFORD, Conn. – At the request of its proponents, a bill that would have given laypeople financial control of their parishes in Connecticut has been withdrawn and is dead for this legislative session.