By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The recent death of Russell M. Nelson—the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—brings to mind again his historic 2019 meeting with Pope…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Nearly a decade after Northern Utah’s beloved Trappist monastery—Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville—closed in 2017, there’s only one monk from there still living in Utah.  One…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– A Vermont wedding, a Niagara Falls honeymoon, and a Utah divorce. What could it all mean? That’s what I was hoping to figure out about my…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Two people I know walked the Camino de Santiago this year. The Camino includes centuries-old (and very long) pathways leading to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Growing up Irish-Catholic in Latter-day Saint Utah, I could never imagine that my longitude and latitude would even register on any map made in Ireland. Then…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Some of my favorite time spent with a fellow graduate of the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law has involved monks and monasteries rather…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– A well-known suffragist and advocate for Irish freedom chose to live in Utah and start her family here just over a century ago. Catherine Mary Flanagan…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Forty years ago this fall I started my final year at the University of Utah College of Law. I was on the cusp of a doctorate,…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– One of the most significant institutions in Utah state history—Catholic schools—started here 150 years ago this month. In 1866, shortly after Brigham Young recommended changes to…

Michael Patrick O’Brien– I don’t know exactly when clowns crossed the line from funny to creepy, but I fear that the rate of devolution has accelerated during my lifetime and…