YORBA LINDA, CALIF. -- The Apollo space program was heavy on Scripture in its great public moments. In the live television broadcast on Christmas Eve 1968, the three astronauts read from Genesis 1:1-10: “In the beginning God created….”

In the spring I took a course to become a hospice volunteer. After spending 12 years railing against euthanasia, both in newspaper articles and through talks, I thought it was time to put my beliefs into concrete action. 

Sleeping late on a Sunday morning a few weeks back, I decided to substitute the 9 a.m. Mass at the church just down the road in our home parish for an 11:30 Mass in a nearby parish.

Authors of dystopian novels are bound to get a lot wrong. After all, they are looking into what they believe will be a dark future which is inherently unpredictable. The year 1984, for example, turned out to be nothing like George Orwell’s famous novel of the same name.

Un-Canadian uniform

In May our Knights of Columbus assembly held its last meeting of the 2018-19 Columbian year. Among the discussions, the most important one concerned the new Fourth Degree regalia.

A Vatican decision to ban single-use plastics won’t by itself empty landfills or save the planet’s oceans, but it sends a message the world needs to hear.

At a recent barbeque, I was telling a long-time friend about a Colombian bishop who planned to exorcise his crime-ridden city of demons by dropping holy water from a helicopter.

Belfast, Northern Ireland -- In the mid-19th century, St. Malachy’s Church on Alfred Street added to its existing structure the largest bell in a city full of Catholic churches and Protestant houses of worship.

It was Mother’s Day when Anne Margaret McAvoy said her last goodbyes, spoken more with quiet groans than with words. She was a wonderful woman who loved deeply with a gentle heart. Through her words and deeds mom taught us to stay close to God.

Detailed knowledge of our liturgical rites is sometimes derided as arcane or obscure. It’s true that sometimes liturgical matters are arcane and obscure. But in the liturgy lie lessons which teach us about important matters which are neither obscure nor arcane. Thus it is good to know the ins and outs of such matters.