That green light is on

For those of us old enough to remember, the saying “Mass on Sunday — confession on Saturday” is, in large measure, no longer true for many Catholics.  But prior to the Second Vatican Council, this was the way the sacraments worked; there…

THE NAME OF THE ROSE at Forty

by Kevin Di Camillo In 1980, a pretty much unknown Italian author—he’d only written a couple of children’s books and some graduate-level textbooks on semiotics (the study of signs), James Joyce and St. Thomas Aquinas—named Umberto Eco…

Why not be a monk?

BY KEVIN T. DI CAMILLO Perhaps one of the biggest detriments to young men entering the monastic life is the lifelong commitment — that, plus the extremely long time it takes to become a monk. And, of course, the vows of poverty, chastity,…

Catholic jargon 101

Many years ago I edited a book titled Now That You Are Catholic by Fr. John J. Kenny, an introduction to Catholic customs for the newly initiated. While the book offered great advice for Catholic neophytes, it did not touch on the many…

Habit by Mary

The religious habit: It’s what separates, on sight, the laity from the professed religious (and, for that matter, the secular clergy.) And of the dozens and dozens of religious orders, congregations, and societies, only a very few wear a…