Living Our Faith with Bishop Reed

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…

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…

My first experience in the field of communication was radio. I was invited to direct the radio apostolate for the Archdiocese of Boston in 1994. Although the archdiocese did not own its own radio license, there were a number of regular…

I was devastated when my Aunt Isabelle said to me: “Bobby, if you actually believe men walked on the moon, you need to have your head examined.” How could anyone think that this complex and heroic achievement was nothing but a Hollywood…

Very often, the first Sunday of Advent comes so soon after Thanksgiving that we hear ourselves saying, “Is it Advent already? Where does the time go?” We have been so immersed in the spirit of autumn — from the back-to-school routines to…

God’s voice is never silent ­— he is always calling to us to come nearer, to go deeper, to respond to the love he has for us every day. What’s more, he never stops calling people to religious vocations — to the priesthood, to religious…