When I was discerning seminary, there was a platitude that I heard from almost every priest and seminarian I had the chance to talk to that I didn’t believe even for a second. Whenever I asked about the challenges and sacrifices in the life of a priest, the vast majority of them said that it isn’t celibacy that proves to be the biggest challenge; it’s obedience. I wrote it off as nonsense. Sure, it must be tough to not always have the final say in where you go or what you do, but that can’t possibly compare to giving up having a wife and kids, right? Click title for full column.

After my talk about voting as Catholics during the Faith Formation Friday on September 4, I thought a more extended, organized, and precise written exhortation may be a helpful conscience formation aid for November. This article provides a two-fold approach—first, general Catholic conscience formation principles and, second, a resource guide for references to Church documents on key issues for diving deeper into the research. Click title for full column.

I consider myself the world’s foremost authority on my own bad habits. To name a few, I enjoy cigars, I definitely don’t get as much sleep as I should, I loathe all non-competitive exercise (so I don’t get any), and left to my own devices, I would probably eat enough nutty bars to put me into a coma. But perhaps worse than any of these is my propensity to hold onto grudges. My exaggerated sense of justice has caused me to not so silently log away every injustice over the course of my life and hold onto it for the sake of proving how everyone has wronged me in every way imaginable. From the time my brother threw my lucky buffalo nickel out the car window to every skirmish with various downtown offices, I sometimes think that the most prominent drive in my life is for vengeance masquerading as justice. Truth be told, I sometimes watch YouTube videos of umpires blowing calls just to get myself fired up, and if that’s not a sickness, I don’t know what is. Click title for full column.

I have said it before and will no doubt say it again, if someone were to personally design a purgatory (or worse) suited specifically to me, it would no doubt be centered around reading internet comment boxes all day. A few weeks ago I wrote about a new Vatican instruction concerning parish life and leadership. I found much of it to be a necessary call to review the way we have always done things and put our resources towards evangelizing an ever-changing world. But this week I read a myriad of comments from folks around the country who saw the document differently, and my heart sank. Click title for full column.