Topics

Holy Days of Obligation Abroad

GUEST COLUMN

J.C. Miller

The Church’s universal laws bind everyone, but those who find themselves in a foreign territory are not obligated to observe universal laws that are not in force there.

Postcards from the Ruins of a Christian Civilization

DOES THE CATHOLIC SUN STILL SHINE IN EUROPE?

Kenneth Colston

I traveled deep through the heart of Christian infrastructure — monasteries, art, books, and families — to see how it's crumbled and to report back to those who care.

Freak Bus Across Afghanistan

TALES FROM THE GREAT HIPPIE TRAIL — PART II

Thomas Basil

My rescuers had, without any advance notice, sacrificed their money, time, and convenience for the sake of this foreigner, this stranger, perhaps this infidel.

Night Bus Across Baluchistan

TALES FROM THE GREAT HIPPIE TRAIL — PART I

Thomas Basil

For $333 I would receive “transportation by bus and double occupancy of a tent” on an escorted 60-day ride from Frankfurt, Germany, to Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Divine Life of St. Nazianz

MYSTERIOUS EVENTS IN THE WISCONSIN WOODS

Tom Basil

This Catholic town was created out of raw Wisconsin woodlands by a single priest as a utopian religious haven.

Beyond Balkanization

CROATIA & ITS CARDINAL

Thomas Basil

Croatia's cardinal Stepinac faced opposition unimaginable to most prelates in the modern West. By all indications, he did not buckle.

Snapshots from a Religious & Literary Pilgrimage

A ROUND OF VISITS ACROSS DECAYING CHRISTENDOM

Kenneth Colston

We travel under the pretense of being receptive, really looking for what we think we already know. Yet we are occasionally genuinely surprised.

Religious Rebirth in the Black Mountains

AMID BOUTS OF CONVERT BEWILDERMENT SYNDROME

Thomas Basil

A Montenegrin national census asked about religious affiliation. Seventy-two percent answered Orthodox, 3.5 percent Catholic, and 19 percent Muslim.

On Pilgrimage with Shakespeare in Protestant England

AMASSING CREDIT IN THE TREASURE HOUSE OF MERIT

Kenneth Colston

Shakes­peare bravely used suspect words like 'pilgrimage' and 'pilgrim,' or variants of these words, at least thirty-one times throughout his corpus.

A Church Rises from the Ruins

BROTHERS OF THE SWORD, THE SINGING REVOLUTION & JOHN PAUL'S LAST BISHOP

Thomas Basil

Catholicism in 1980s Estonia amounted to one shunned priest living in a closet; his flock numbered fewer than a half dozen souls.

God & Man in Kyiv

RELIGIOUS SUPPRESSION ON YOUTUBE

Thomas Basil

Monastery of the Caves was founded on the Dnieper River in A.D. 1015, when Kyiv was capital of the Russian state. The monastery is one of Orthodoxy's greatest.

A Mass in Latvia

FROM COMMUNISM TO CHRISTIANITY

Thomas Basil

Here Catholics can discover a Church tougher and more unashamed than their own, and perhaps can learn how to persevere against a cultural elite that despises them.

Travels in Europe's Once & Future Faith

CHRISTIANITY ON THE CONTINENT

Thomas Basil

From 2001 to 2008 this author traveled to 16 European countries for business, attending Mass in each. This is what I encountered.

Contrasts in Christendom: Red Lights in Amsterdam, Neon In Malta

ON THE ROCK WITH ST. PAUL

Thomas Basil

One country has kept Catholicism in the attic for centuries. The other has kept Catholicism alive, even on uninhabited islands.

At the Tomb of St. Thérèse

THE LITTLE FLOWER AND THE GREAT WAR

Thomas Basil

She was thought so unimportant in her day that her newspaper obituary read: "Death on 30 September, of Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin, 24 years 9 months, nun at Carmel, rue de Jivarot."

Graffiti in Warsaw, Mormons in Krakow, & Basements in Auschwitz

TRAVELS IN POLAND

Thomas Basil

In Poland the presumption is that truth is one, and there is only the true Church. If it's not Catholic, it's not true. The spiritual maze is simple to navigate.

At Mass in Lenin's City

AN ALTAR CONSECRATED BY PRIESTLY BLOOD

Thomas Basil

The Catholic Church is the only large institution left for effective resistance to Trotsky's enduring Culture of Death and its ruinous impact.

A Picnic on a Tombstone & Other Reflections

ON LIFE IN THE SPIRIT

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Finding a New Way to Get a Glimpse of God

CIRCUS DIARY -- PART II

Henri J.M. Nouwen

A Sudden Trip to Lourdes

BY-PASSING THE EXCITEMENT OF BERLIN

Henri J.M. Nouwen

A Glimpse of the "Gay World" in San Francisco & the "Fast World" in Los Angeles

STRUGGLING TO REMAIN ANCHORED IN JESUS

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Trying to Avoid Temptations When Among the Famous & Successful

ON NOT BEING DISTRACTED BY POWER & WEALTH

Henri J.M. Nouwen

The Extraordinary Witness of Marthe Robin

TO SUFFER WITH JESUS

Henri J.M. Nouwen

To Meet the Body is to Meet the Word

LIVING THE INCARNATION AT L'ARCHE

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Orthodox Downward Mobility or Secularist Prosperity?

THE TRAGEDY OF DUTCH CATHOLICISM

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Holland changed from a very pious to a very secular country in one generation. From just meeting and speaking to people, it seems busy-ness and pros­perity are two obvious reasons.

The Trusting Heart & the Primacy of the Mystical Life

HOLY ENOUGH TO WALK ON WATER

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Handicapped people, who have such a limited ability to learn, can let their heart speak easily and thus reveal a mystical life that for many intelligent people seems unreachable.

A New Life among the Handicapped

FAREWELL TO HARVARD

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Village life is a small world of community celebration, sharing of human vulnerabilities, and an always new invitation to let Jesus be the center of everything.