Since this synod was announced in 2021, I have worked with the Seattle chancery as a synod volunteer and responded to the call for dialogue by personally talking with 100 people who were baptized and are now non-practicing.

The newest book by James Martin, S.J., inspires us to ask: Do you believe that Jesus can give you new life?

While narrow nationalism fanned the fires of war, Father Willie Doyle, a WWI chaplain, often paid as much attention to wounded German soldiers as he did to those on his own side.

Jim remembered everyone—even my mother whom he had never met or spoken with. A special occasion would not go by without a phone call or a handwritten note from Jim.

The whole dynamic of hearing confessions in prison is incredible. I use this awesome role of confessor to encourage them to foster the spark of God’s love for them, not to waste it.

On Aug. 6, we wrestle with the dramatic extremes of good and evil, as symbolized by the ancient glory of the Transfiguration and the utter destruction of that first atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.