The Civil Forum sponsored by the Saddleback Church and its founder and pastor Rick Warren was the first chance for voters to see presidential candidates Senator John McCain and Senator Barack Obama answer questions about faith. What the voters actually saw was a polished Senator Obama using illustrative words and nice platitudes but saying very little. Senator […]

There was a time in the 1970s when Catholic politicians could get away with thumbing their political noses at the Church. There seemed to be few ramifications until New York's John Cardinal O'Connor put a stop to it. He was later joined by other prelates who were not only trying to help Catholic politicians understand the seriousness […]

I was contacted by those interested in the Cause of Sainthood for Archbishop Sheen and was then put into contact with Father Apostoli who I had met earlier last year. The following interview began in December 2007 and was completed in January 2008. [Note: Archbishop Sheen is either referred to as Bishop or Archbishop. He was Bishop Sheen for […]

It had long been a common, but mistaken, belief among Protestants that Catholics did not need to know the Scriptures because they did not carry a Bible into church. However, outsiders often did not realize that both the New and Old Testament are read at Mass. The Catholic Church gave the world the Bible and yet, for […]

As he made his way to the balcony on Saint Peter's Square after his election as pope, everyone could see his devotion to Mary by looking at the new pontiff's stole.  The new Pope, John Paul II, was letting everyone know how Marian his spirituality was.  During the late 1960s and until Pope John Paul […]

It started with anti-Catholic flyers on the windshields of cars in a Catholic church's parking lot.  One could argue that the modern post-Vatican II Catholic apologetics movement started with that act.  San Diego businessman Karl Keating became so upset about these flyers, he felt called to take action.  He subsequently started Catholic Answers and one […]

We are told by the mainstream media that there is a priest shortage which will cripple the Church and that empty convents will never be occupied again. These same media organizations float that idea that only non-celibacy can save the day. Increasingly, the numbers of young men entering the seminary to become priests and young women entering […]

It started with Scott Hahn and it is still going strong.  The number of prominent Protestant clergy and theologians coming to the Catholic Church has been nothing short of remarkable.  Priests like Father Dwight Longenecker and Father Alvin Kimel are new to the Church and they bring a lot of enthusiasm, scholarship and wit and […]

As word leaked out, some in the American Church began quietly to voice their concerns to Rome. It would be a disaster, nobody would come. Denver was not a coastal city near tens of millions of people. Besides, the youth weren't really into Pope John Paul II, well at least not the ones whose parents were voicing […]

It is now officially spring in more ways than one.  While many are concentrating on the new life visibly sprouting out of the ground, few are paying attention to the springtime of evangelization in the Catholic Church.  In his final years, Pope John Paul II told us this was beginning to occur.  With his 27 […]