By Connie Platis Saccomanno (Guest Contributor)– Growing up with my Greek grandmother (Yaya) Fatini “Foto” Lambrinos Liapis was a very educational, exciting, loving and happy experience.  Her Greek Orthodox religion…

By Gary Topping– Michael Gerson, columnist for the Washington Post, has an article in the current Atlantic which will be of interest to readers of this blog who discuss “church,…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Reading about historical events is one of my favorite hobbies. In March especially, I enjoy reading about all things Irish. In this spirit, I recently read…

By Gary Topping– Apparently it’s as true for priests as it is for the rest of us: you can’t please everybody.  I think almost any priest will tell you that…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– We do not often think of Ogden, Utah, as a significant source of Irish culture or of Catholic history. Yet, during St. Patrick’s month (March), I…

By Gary Topping– The recent death of the Reverend Billy Graham, by far the most prominent Evangelical Christian of my generation, has me thinking about the relationships among the various…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Stout Irish Catholics that we always were in the family of my boyhood, you may be surprised to learn about my mother’s great interest in watching…

By Gary Topping– Don’t try so hard.  That’s my piece of unconventional wisdom (if it even turns out to be that) for this week. We’re all aware of several places…

By Michael Patrick O’Brien– I recently re-read Dorothy Day’s autobiography The Long Loneliness (1952 Harper & Row New York). I had not read it for about 35 years, since college…

By Gary Topping– (Editor note: All this week, our regular bloggers are considering, and writing about, the question of why belong to a religion when the fastest growing demographic is…