The national decline in church attendance seems to be accompanied by another trend: a rise in “safe spaces” on college campuses. These are environments designed to protect certain students from subjects they may find uncomfortable, depending on their background or…

Whether or not you believe in the literal account of Adam and Eve and the nature of their original sin, what’s harder to believe is that their Creator would abandon them and their descendants to hopeless lifetimes of toil and…

“El Chapo,” the infamous Mexican drug lord, will go down in history for his inability to escape prison. Yes, he staged two elaborate vacations from them—the second via an impressive Hogan’s-Heroes-style  tunnel he dug beneath his cell—but he was just…

Did you know that a dinosaur writes this blog? You can carbon date me by the music I listen to. I’m firmly entrenched in the Perry Como era. He and his colleagues who sang from the Great American Songbook of…

Last week’s inauguration was designed to help Donald Trump accept an oversized hand-me-down mantle of leadership that he’ll have to grow into—just as each of its previous owners did. The ceremonies began with a series of prayers for the success…

Guys like me who pontificate about matters of faith should pay special attention to this Sunday’s mass readings. Although many of us are guided by the Spirit, we can sometimes take a bit too much pride in occasionally saying something pithy…

Judging from the top viral videos, we’re all suckers for reunions—especially those involving military people who have been separated from their families for many months. You can see hours of these moments online—including those involving pets reacting to their returned…

“How many thousand of my poorest subjects are at this hour asleep! O sleep, O gentle sleep, nature’s soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, that thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down and steep my senses in forgetfulness?…

In the early 1960s, writer Rod Serling used his Twilight Zone TV series to tell enlightening parables for his time. They often had a shocking twist at the end. If Serling were alive today, this Sunday’s mass readings might have…

Watching the movie “The Song of Bernadette” the other night made me think of Christmas tree lights—the old annoying series-wired kind.  A string of these lights goes dark when one bulb goes bad. But using the glass-half-full perspective, you could…