Category Archives: Pastor’s Notes

Learn Your Faith/Aprenda Su Fe

My previous assignment as Spiritual Director and religion teacher at Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport offered me many opportunities to discuss the Catholic faith with my fellow faculty members and my students, Catholic and non-Catholic alike. During one Lenten season one of my non-Catholic Christian students wanted to discuss a sermon she had heard…
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Learn Your Faith: Lent/Cuaresma

It is not often that we enter the realms of higher mathematics in our column on the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. However, the forty days of Lent pose a thorny arithmetical “story problem” for our consideration. If we calculate the number of days in Lent beginning from Ash Wednesday (celebrated this year on…
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Learn Your Faith: Matrimony and Annulment

Pope Benedict XVI, in an address to a group of Italian priests some years ago, encouraged parishes to continue to welcome divorced, civilly remarried Catholics to the celebration of Mass even though those Catholics may not receive Holy Communion. The Pope’s address reminds us of the painful situation which exists for those Catholic parishioners who…
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Aprenda su Fe: Planificación Familiar Natural

Esta semana nuestros estudiantes de RICA y Educación Religiosa están estudiando el Sacramento del Santo Matrimonio. Con esto en mente, ofrecemos una breve reflexión sobre las enseñanzas de la Iglesia acerca de la planificación familiar natural (PFN). Con el acto de la creación del mundo, el Dios Trino, el Padre, el Hijo y el Espíritu…
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Learn Your Faith: Euthanasia/La Eutanasia

One of the fundamental moral precepts of the Catholic Church, derived from Revelation and the Natural Law, is that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being at any stage of life from conception to natural death is always gravely immoral. Euthanasia, or “mercy killing” as it is sometimes called, is “an action…
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Matrimony and Happiness

“Happiness is anyone and anything at all that’s loved by you.” So say the words of a song from the musical You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. While this definition of happiness may elicit a warm, fuzzy feeling from those who see the musical, it was not particularly useful during a debate in my theology…
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Learn Your Faith: Theology and Language

Learning the Faith necessarily includes not only thinking about God in new ways, but also learning new words and terms. Learning to use these words and terms properly is essential because using them incorrectly can lead to philosophical and theological errors of the kind that have divided Christians for almost as long as there have…
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FIESTA DE NUESTRA SEÑORA DE LOURDES: 11 DE FEBRERO

Santa Bernardita, Imitemos su humildad! Bernardita era profundamente inocente, sencilla; limpia de corazón, desconocía toda maldad, y malicia, confiaba profundamente en el Señor. La Virgen María la escogió para enviar su mensaje porque era una criatura sencilla y pura. Bernardita decía que desde que vio a la Virgen, vivió con una permanente nostalgia por el…
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