by Bishop Robert Reed Rich man & the beggar Year after year, we pass through the penitential season called Lent, and on Easter we bring back our ‘Glorias’ and ‘Alleluias’, and we feast again. We might hear that we are “Easter people.”…

We all know how the “newness” and fresh feeling of a new calendar year can quickly be forgotten. That new year enthusiasm, manifested in resolutions to do better in this or that area of one’s life, soon gives way to the doldrums of this…

by Bishop Robert Reed The news last August that growing numbers of Catholics no longer believe that the Holy Eucharist is Jesus Christ naturally led many commentators to wonder how we can reignite people’s faith in this profound mystery…

by Bishop Robert Reed I had two fathers when I was growing up. I know that sounds strange. The fact is, my birth father, William, was killed in a car accident just before I received my First Holy Communion. My mother remarried a…

My parents were both raised in Boston. My mom was of Irish Catholic descent, and my dad was a Scottish Presbyterian. Both were hard workers and great dancers who loved a good party. In the late 1950s they built a house in a new development…

Lent is a period of prayer and preparation, and some Catholics like to include a retreat in anticipation of Easter. Even the pope and his closest advisers in the Vatican schedule a retreat during the early days of Lent. I’ve found that many…

We are drawing near to the end of 2019, a year in which we looked back on some significant anniversaries. One of the most important, of course, was on July 20 — 50 years since man first set foot on the moon. It made me happy to see that…

When I was a kid, the Reed family’s “Christmas season” began right after our Thanksgiving dinner. After our second helpings, we’d head over to the North Shore Shopping Center in Peabody, Massachusetts. This was not a Black Friday scramble!…

It’s hard to believe, but three years have already passed since I received a call early one Monday morning to inform me that I had been named a bishop. As it took a while to get used to being called “Fr. Reed” back in 1985 when I was…

By now we know that the abuse of children and vulnerable adults crosses many boundaries. Not only has the phenomenon reared its ugly head in various Catholic dioceses around the world, it is definitely not limited to the confines of the…