Q: One of the most difficult things to explain to my non-Catholic friends is why we decorate our churches with statues. They say they are graven image, and some even reject statue art in museums and engravings on coins. They are especially critical of the crucifix. How can I respond? …

By Jeanne Hunt I recently asked a group of parishioners to tell me what they are afraid of. I said they could say whatever came into their minds. Profound or silly, any answer was a good one. This is what they said: Death, sickness, losing my job, not having enough …

It stood on the top floor of St. Bernard Catholic School, glorious in its art deco green and chrome glory, emblazoned with a “5-cent” symbol and little display windows. It was the closest thing to heaven the school’s 400 students could imagine — the candy machine. That machine, with its …

By Father David Endres Q: In Genesis 3, it is recorded that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of which God forbid them to eat from, but Eve ate first, inviting Adam to do the same. What if Eve was the only one to eat the fruit – the …

By Jeanne Hunt Have you ever had a hunch about something? A hunch is a gut feeling that you have to do something or make a certain choice. Hunches have very little to do with rational analysis of a situation and more to do with a feeling that we know …

Simon Sinek, a current bright star on the leadership and management scene, has some interesting thoughts on social media. He thinks there’s more wrong with it than right, at the very time the entire world seems to have decided otherwise. Sinek, who is just a few months older than my …

My son has two children, ages two and four. He does not seem interested in having them baptized. Can I baptize them myself? As the number of Americans who no longer identify with any religion increases, frequently the children of baptized Catholics go without the sacrament of baptism. Many dioceses …

Jeanne Hunt A situation occurred at the parish that is nagging me into prayer. When an event occurs that I keep hashing over in my mind, usually there is a lesson there that God wants me to learn: The phone rang and on the other end was a very angry …

This month marks the 44th anniversary of the Roe V. Wade decision by the Supreme Court. As most of us know, the High Court by a 7-2 vote, decided that the 14th Amendment guarantees a right to privacy and this right protected a woman’s right to abort her child. What …

Q: I have heard that the number of seminarians is increasing locally and more of them are recent college graduates. Why do you think there are fewer second-career vocations and more young men applying to seminary? A: Yes, there has been an increase in seminary enrollments locally and nationally and …