Each Lent Jesus calls us through the Church to come closer to him through our personal prayer and penance, and through our common Lenten practices. This year, with the threat of war, prayer and penance are the more urgent. We read how those in the military now realize that so much is not under human...Read More

Twenty-five years ago this past October, a man unknown to most of the world stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He was introduced as Pope John Paul II. He said he came to us “from a far country.” Soon afterwards, at the Eucharist inaugurating his papal ministry, he called us to...Read More

Yesterday, on Palm Sunday we heard the powerful narrative of the Passion according to St. Matthew. There the evangelist told us just what it meant for Jesus in taking up his cross and, therefore, what it can mean for us to take up the cross to follow him. For Jesus, it meant being betrayed by...Read More

In our scripture readings this weekend we heard the story of the man cured of blindness. He spoke the words, “I was blind but now I see.” With that gift of sight came the ability to see the beauty of creation, but also the ugliness that sin afflicts upon our world. This week we also...Read More

The year we now complete is extraordinary. The events of September 11 leap to mind. Yet I mention that date only by way of introducing this celebration. And here is how I tell the story. During the month of October I was in Rome, because our conference of Bishops had chosen me as one of...Read More

To Archbishop Justin Rigali, a dear friend of many years and a great shepherd in the Church, I express my thanks for the personal invitation to be with you today. It is a grace to be able to reflect with you on the life of the Church in a critical moment of our nation’s history...Read More

The readings for today were chosen by Bishop Malooly and help us to a faith vision of the office of bishop he is soon to receive by the laying on of hands and the invocation of the Holy Spirit. The first reading (Jeremiah 1:4-9) has the prophet protesting the call from the Lord God to...Read More

Our America celebrates its heritage of religious freedom. In the Archdiocese of Baltimore we can also rejoice in remembering that religious freedom in the English-speaking world had its beginnings in Maryland with the Catholic colonists in their Assembly’s Acts of Toleration of 1639 and 1649. That freedom, offered to all the colonists who lived here...Read More