Don’t Talk to the Divider!
1st Sunday of Lent (A); February 22, 2026 Gn 2:7-9, 3:1-7. Ps 51. Rom 5:12-19. Mt 4:1-11 Deacon Jim McFadden Each year, the Gospel of the 1st Sunday of Lent presents us with the narrative of Jesus in the…
Category: FYI/Trends
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Catholic Trends/November 2021
The Nones: Where they Come from, Who they are, and Where they’re going. 27% of 18-29 identify themselves as being religiously unaffiliated. 18.8% of 30 year old do the same. Why the emergence? According to Ryan P. Burge, who published a book (of the lead intro.), “The reality is simply this: Americans used to be…
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Catholic Trends/Summer ’17
Pope Francis v. the Alt-right. The struggle between progressives and conservatives under the Francis pontificate took a dramatic turn when the New York Times linked alt-right standard bearer, Steve Bannon (former Breitbart News editor, current advisor to President Trump, and self-identified but non-practicing Catholic) to the Vatican. According to the Times, Bannon and…
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So-called “5 non-negotiable actions”
I just finished reading your Summer edition of ‘Catholic Trends’. I am diametrically opposed to much of it. According to the Voters Guide for Serious Catholics, which is published by Catholic Answers Action (copy attached), there are five non-negotiable actions which are intrinsically evil and therefore against moral law. They are abortion, euthanasia, embryonic…
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Catholic Identity & Political Conviction
How does Catholic identity inform political conviction? Since the Catholic vote could very well swing the upcoming national election, this is a good question. Without belaboring the obvious, not everyone who claims to be a Catholic has thoroughly embraced the Catholic faith. So, what shape does Catholic identity take? Nominal Catholics. The Catholic tradition…
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Summer-’16: Catholic Trends
THE CATHOLIC VOTE. The old adage goes “one should not talk about politics or religion in polite company.” Well, I’m going to do both! To begin with, Catholics shouldn’t be too comfortable laying their head on either the Democratic or Republican pillow as neither one fully conveys our Catholic Social Justice tradition. The Magisterium’s…
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Catholic Trends/Summer-2014
This sister just wants to have fun. At the risk of conveying very old news, If you haven’t had the chance, check out Sr Christina Scuccia, a 25 year old member of the Ursuline Sisters who won the singing competition on The Voice of Italy, a show comparable to America’s American Idol. Sr. Christina…
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Catholic Trends–Winter, 2013
Pope Francis debunks ‘trickle down’ economics, plutocracy, and the idolatry of money. Our Holy Father’s first Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, is going to be challenging reading for Catholics on both the right and the left—two groups he wishes to bring together: melding ‘right to life’ concerns with the left’s advocacy of social justice. …
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Catholic Trends–Fall (2013)
Catholic Trends—Fall 2013 Mission & Vision key to parish giving. For the past fifty years, studies on charitable giving have consistently shown that American Catholics are the least likely than the rest of the population to report giving 10% or more of their income as voluntary contributions, and are less likely to report donating…
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Catholic Trends–Summer ’13
Parish life is changing. American parishes are moving towards a more collaborative, competent, and mission-focused pastoral leadership, strengthened in their service to ministries at all levels. CARA (Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate) surveyed 800 parishes, which resulted in the following: • 58% of parishioners surveyed in-pew rate their overall satisfaction…
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Catholic Trends–Winter 2013
Catholic Trends—Winter 2013 Obama wins Catholic Vote in 2012. Despite pressure from many American Catholic prelates, Catholics narrowly gave their support to incumbent Barack Obama, who got 50% of the Catholic vote compared to 48% for Governor Mitt Romney—the same distribution for the total electorate. This is similar to the results in 2008, when…
homilies
Ash Wednesday: A Time for pruning
Jl 2:12-18. Ps 51. 2 Cor 5:20-6:2. Mt 6:1-6, 16-18 Deacon Jim McFadden People of God, we come once again, to that great season of Lent, which is a great opportunity to prune away falseness, superficiality, and indifference to…
Respect a Person’s Dignity!
6th Sunday of Ordinary Time (A); February 15, 2026 Sir 15:15-20. Ps 119. 1 Cor 2:6-10. Mt 5:17-37 Deacon Jim McFadden It can begin with the smallest gesture: an interested glance across a classroom, the brushing of a hand,…
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