Growing up Catholic and Cuban-American in the Bible Belt of the Deep South in the late 1960s proved challenging. I experienced the awkwardness of passing on that tasty Sloppy Joe sandwich on Fridays and the humiliation of being picked up early from slumber parties because my parents couldn’t wrap their …

The core problem underlying end of life care, and our treatment of the aged and medically vulnerable in our society, is a lack of love. Our failure to love, individually and societally, defies our Lord’s desire for us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. As Pope St. John …

During this time of pandemic, it has been very important to me to persevere in my work as a sacred musician. Not only do our liturgies still need music, but it seems to me that during this time, in which much of our focus has been on bodily survival, the …

Serving the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as superintendent of Catholic schools, I could never have imagined the effects a global pandemic would have on our nation, state and Catholic schools. On Mar. 12, when Governor Mike DeWine announced statewide school closures, I was stunned, taking a very deep breath and instantly …

Caroling. Festive parties. Charming decorations. Cookies. Gift-exchanges. The message is all around us: We should be happy because it’s Christmas. Indeed, to be anything other than effusively joyful means running the risk of being labeled a scrooge. So, no matter what is going on in our lives – or in …

Youth ministry began at Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in Reading in the fall of 1998, and, soon afterwards, we began seeking opportunities for the compulsory “mission trip.” We didn’t have to look far. At the same time, our Parish Mission Commission was filing the paperwork to recognize a small …

BE IN MY EYES, BE IN MY HEART I could not sleep the night before I met a Catholic priest for the first time. Until that year of my life, my knowledge of Catholicism had been informed by negative headlines, my Evangelical pastors’ condemnations of the Church, and an encounter …