Generally, there is no clear way to know whether or not someone is still in purgatory.

This descent into emotivism and sentimentality has profound consequences for society as well as for individuals.

If you attend a church which blocks misfits, you’re in the wrong church. Jesus welcomed misfits — the Samaritan woman, the leper, the woman “caught in the very act” of adultery, the tax collector.

“Dilexi Te” manifests both Pope Leo’s recognition that we need to grow in unity and subtly illustrates a means to bring such unity to a fractured church, something he has spoken of from the earliest days of his pontificate.

Anyone who has had a loved one diagnosed with cancer knows how painful and scary it is. Yet, in that moment and throughout my four years in Rome, the Holy Spirit placed a resounding message in my heart: God will provide.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen is remembered as one of the most influential and innovative evangelists in American history. Once dubbed “God’s microphone,” Sheen announced God’s truth in a nonconfrontational, yet no less life-giving, manner to untold millions through radio, print and television.

Besides the rite of major exorcism, the church also has several “minor exorcisms” in her treasury of prayers. A minor exorcism is a prayer for protection against and deliverance from evil spirits which can be prayed by any priest in scenarios other than demonic possession.

I was thinking about how often people share with me their reasons for leaving a particular parish.

Sometimes, you even plant unintentionally, by the way you live your life. If you live like a follower of Jesus, that should show in what you do and say. By being kind and not adding to the divisiveness we experience today, you can be an example for others on how to treat our fellow humans.

Thanks to the availability of instantaneous, global communication and our addiction to it, 21st century humans are permitted — perhaps condemned is a better word — to witness daily episodes of brutality and violence and, particularly over the past few months, horrendous killings.