GREAT BARRINGTON My church, St. Thomas Aquinas, is in the news a lot these days. I don't live in Adams anymore, so I haven't been there too often lately, but I have fond memories of growing up a ...

My Catholic first Communion was circa 1962. I was 7-years-old, but my first confession was the stepping stone, which brings back dress rehearsals and the sins of omission. We second-graders had to ...

Readings: Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46 1 Corinthians 10:31—11: 1 Mark 1:40-45 The Gospel of St. Mark has a “Messianic Secret.” That is the term scholars use when referring to the reluctance of Jesus to be ...

IN AN INTERVIEW with a Jesuit magazine in 2013, Pope Francis declared, “The confessional is not a torture chamber, but the place in which the Lord’s mercy motivates us to do better.” This is not how ...

The Roman Catholic Church urges its faithful to confess their sins to a priest at least once a year, and insists that they do so before receiving Communion if they have committed a mortal sin. In ...