Thursday, April 15, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes April 16, 2005, marked Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger’s 78th birthday. He had a small gathering at the Holy Office to celebrate. He told his colleagues that he intended to stay for a short while to help the new pope and then to retire …

Thursday, March 18, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes Some years ago, I was at a cookout with some friends and someone said, “Father, you’re Indian but your last name is Fernandes. Why is that?” I answered that some Indians have Portuguese names because the Portuguese colonized part of India around Goa, …

Thursday, February 18, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes In 1982  my father came home from work one day with a brand new car for my mom. It was a maroon Ford Fairmont. We children were jumping up and down with excitement as we saw it for the first time through …

Thursday, January 21, 2010 By Father Earl Fernandes Sophocles’ play Antigone opposes the wills of Antigone, daughter of Oedipus, and Creon, the King of Thebes. Creon had two sons: Eteocles, who was destined to reign, and Polyneices, who was exiled by Creon. Polyneices attacked the city. In the battle, the …

Wednesday, April 1, 2009 By Father Earl Fernandes In his online report March 20, John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter wrote: “It’s almost as if the pope has made two separate visits to Cameroon: the one reported internationally and the one Africans actually experienced. In the U.S. and many …

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 By Father Earl Fernandes I was delighted to read, “Local Ruah Woods to offer Theology of the Body programs,” in The Catholic Telegraph. The establishment of such a center is timely and necessary. Last November, the Notre Dame Center for Ethics in Culture sponsored a conference …