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The World Wide Web is full of sites that prey on human weakness. Yet there are also plenty of spiritually nourishing sites that help users grow in their faith or spend time in prayer or meditation.

WORCESTER, Mass. – After college, Renee Burke-Drazba landed a job in her field and loved it.

Eighty-three years ago Walter Lippmann published a brilliant, deeply disturbing book called “Public Opinion.” Bearing in mind that John Dewey called it “the most effective indictment of democracy … ever penned,” Americans need to take what it says to heart in 2008 as they try to make sense of the latest race for the presidency.

Just when it seems that preoccupation with economics will leave us in despair, sudden insights allow us to shed 600 years of history and reach a timeless look at our human nature. I refer to the key characters in British television comedies, Mrs. Slocum and Mr. Humphries, who are straight out of “The Canterbury Tales,” specifically the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner. There are also echoes of the chivalric set on that cast, in the ironic dignity of Captain Peacock.

Next to our choice of God, the most important choice most of us will make in life will be the choice of a marriage partner. The choice of a spouse will affect our physical, emotional and spiritual health, and to a large degree the health of our children and grandchildren. We will pass on to our descendents our dysfunctional and addictive traits (addiction to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs), as well as our qualities of caring, commitment and character.

My first visit to St. Peter Claver occurred during my senior year in college. My friend Anthony Supo Akingbade, a Nigerian studying in America, came home to Baltimore with me from college in Massachusetts for the Christmas holidays. At the time, I was not a Roman Catholic, and all I wanted to do was make sure Supo would make it to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. We walked the half-mile from our house on Robert Street to the church, found a packed sanctuary and had to sit in the aisle. Over the years, I have come to know much more about St. Peter Claver, the historical development of the church and the Josephite priests who have ministered here from its conception. During this, the 120th anniversary of the church’s founding, I would like to share with you what I have learned and talk about the hope for the future of this monument to perseverance.