ByFons Priest, professor and former dean Titus Brandsma is an important step towards canonization. “If things go fast, it could be in February,” says philosopher and FTR dean Christoph Lüthy. Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) is well on his way to being canonized. The Carmelite, priest and former professor and dean of the Catholic University of Nijmegen who…
ByFons Several sources state Saint Nicholas is believed to have died on December 6, 343. Over the years, stories of his miracles and work for the poor spread to other parts of the world. He became known as the protector of children and sailors and was associated with gift-giving. He was a popular saint in Europe…
ByFons In their collective statement circulated Tuesday, November 3, CERNA members identify Pope Francis’ New Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti and the forthcoming canonization of Blessed Charles de Foucauld as “the two recent Church events” that “shed a new and joyful light on what we are living.” They term the Holy Father’s Encyclical a document that sheds light on the value of…
ByFons Missionary archbishop. Born in Northumbria in 658, Willibrord studied at Ripon monastery under St Wilfrid and spent twelve years studying in Ireland at the abbey of Rathmelsigi, under Saints Egbert and Wigbert. After his ordination he set out, in about 690, with a dozen companions for Frisia, or Friesland. These men covered extraordinary distances on…
ByFons “Sermon to the birds: ‘Esteemed friends, birds of noble lineage, I have no message to you except this: be what you are: be birds. Thus you will be your own sermon to yourselves!’ Reply: ‘Even this is one sermon too many!’” — Thomas Merton (Day of a Stranger, p.51) Francis and the Wolf Carlo Carretto (1910–1988)…
ByFons Why is Dominic any different from any other saint who founded a religious order? It’s a worthwhile question, and a good antidote to the personality cults that often attach themselves to the founders of religious orders. The key for me is in the opening quotation from Blessed Jordan of Saxony. Dominic felt compassion for other…
ByFons So, on this feast of St Ignatius we find him walking with us, still a pilgrim on our pilgrimage. As our companion, what might he want to share with us to keep us going in these difficult times? For a start, I think he would ask us not only to focus on the spiritual but…
ByFons 29 June is the day set apart in the Catholic world for the celebration of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Apart from Mary, the mother of Jesus, St Joseph and St John the Baptist, these are the only human figures commemorated in the calendar of the universal Church with a day given the…
ByFons Antakya (Agenzia Fides) – This year, in the city of Antakya – the ancient Antioch on the Orontes, currently in Turkish territory – baptized Catholics, Orthodox and apostolic Armenians will not be able to live together the intense moments of communion that in the past they used to share on the days of June 28…
ByFons (Charles de Foucauld) was deeply respectful of the faiths and cultures he lived among. During his 13 years in the Saraha he learned about Tuareg culture and language, compiling a Tuareg-French dictionary, and being a “brother” to the people. The priest said he wanted to “shout the Gospel with his life” and to conduct himself so…
ByFons I do not want to write this encyclical without turning to that attractive and compelling figure, whose name I took as my guide and inspiration when I was elected Bishop of Rome. I believe that Saint Francis is the example par excellence of care for the vulnerable and of an integral ecology lived out joyfully and…
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