A Nov. 6 letter to clergy in the vicariate of Brabant Walloon, a French-speaking area south of the capital, Brussels, proposed naming Rebecca Alsberge alongside the pope and the local bishop in the Eucharistic Prayer. In Belgium, an episcopal delegate is a territorial coordinator responsible for a region of a diocese — typically overseen by an auxiliary bishop in other countries ..read more

The story is told of the family that year after year, regardless of the neighbors raising questions, was true to their tradition of cutting the leg of a pig a little shorter than normal butchering practice. Eventually it came to light that their particular practice had no basis other than the diminutive size of some ancestor’s pot—a pot long out of use. The practice of traditions–including at Christmas–need not be slavish or undiscerning ..read more

The most Catholic show on network television has its finale tonight, 14 years and 283 episodes after its premiere in September 2010. Blue Bloods has had an extraordinary run in a time when network television has been hemorrhaging audiences. Blue Bloods is not only a police drama. It’s a family drama about a police family. Tom Selleck stars as Francis (Frank) Xavier Reagan, the Irish Catholic police commissioner of New York City ..read more

hen Nick Chancey was a boy in West Virginia, he didn’t have much time for Christianity. He spent the occasional Sunday hiking into the woods with his father to offer a cup of milk and a handful of quarters to forest fairies. His dad kept a small Buddhist statue at home, and dabbled in Native American spirituality and “druid and Celtic stuff,” Chancey told me. “It was not uncommon for the Baptist preacher in his Sunday best to show up on our doorstep and for my dad to cuss the guy off the porch because he was saying we were going to hell ..read more

As a young man of twenty-nine, fresh into ministry, I was privileged to take a mission trip to Campinas, Brazil. While there, our interpreter was kind enough to show us some of the local sites, including the Metropolitan Cathedral. As a budding young Baptist minister, I simply had no box for what I encountered there. The church was very large and magnificent. The outside was topped with impressive statues of I knew not who, and the inside was filled with intricate wood carvings ..read more

The days are drawing nigh on the end of the political careers of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, once the two most powerful Catholic politicians in the world.Given the scandal they’ve caused over the years by repeatedly distorting and openly defying some of the fundamental principles of their common faith, one might say the days can’t draw nigh soon enough ..read more

This Sunday is Gaudete (Rejoice) Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, Year C. It’s called that for several reasons: “Rejoice” is the first word of the Entrance Antiphon at Mass; the pink candle means we’re more than halfway to Christmas; and the readings stop focusing on the terrible times to come and start expecting the joy that’s nearly here. Here are six takeaways from the readings at Mass, taken from previous “This Sunday” columns ..read more

Pope Francis received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Vatican on Thursday for discussions focused on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and prospects for peace in the Holy Land.During the 30-minute audience, which was followed by meetings with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states, the leaders emphasized the importance of reaching a solution for “the two states only through dialogue and diplomacy,” according to a Vatican statement ..read more

In the morning twilight of Dec. 9, 1531, a breathtaking chorus of birdsong stopped the Aztec Indian Juan Diego in his tracks as he was rounding the foot of a hill called Tepeyac. The birds’ music so enthralled the fervent convert that he asked himself whether he was in a dream or, perhaps, even in Heaven, for the hill itself seemed to be singing responses to the birds each time their chorus quieted, a miraculous symphony of nature greeting the dawn ..read more

Most Catholics wouldn’t consider the motherly image of Our Lady of Guadalupe a martial image. The serene, pregnant Virgin—signified by the black sash expectant Aztec women wore, appeared to St. Juan Diego and upon his cactus-fiber tilma in 1531, a decade after Christianity came to the Mesoamerican people. In a tender vision to Diego’s uncle, the same Lady disclosed her name, “Santa Maria de Guadalupe,” though many think the now-famous title is a mistranslation of “Coatlaloppe,” meaning “snake crusher,” which is anything but tender ..read more