While the church’s prayer should not be a battlefield, Archbishop Roche says it is understandable that people are passionate about it.

No one wants to be at a funeral. It means that a loss has occurred, hearts broken. But there are few other instances in which doing something we dread so deeply can mean so much.

Recent edicts and explanations of edicts out of Rome have ignited a familiarly unpleasant conflict in the U.S. church. And yet, though this will infuriate a vocal minority of my fellow Catholics, I just don’t get the brouhaha over the traditional Latin Mass.

Our return to an in-person celebration of the birth of Jesus is also an opportunity to think about how we have done Christmas in the past—and perhaps even make some adjustments.

A new document from the Vatican congregation that oversees Mass and the sacraments offers responses to questions some bishops have asked about restrictions on the celebration of the pre-Vatican II liturgical rite.

How do our religious leaders launch this spirited season of Advent in the hope of spiritual healing? Above all else, Saint Paul counsels: “Don’t stifle the spirit!”