Our consumer society will tell you that Thanksgiving is past and that the holiday shopping season is upon us beginning with the craziness of Black Friday. And that it’s just fine if Black Friday actually starts on Thanksgiving, or before. We say that while a day set aside for giving thanks is a wonderful tradition […]
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Pvt. Charles Dermody
As this is written, exactly 100 years ago my life hung in the balance — though I would not be born for another four decades. For on Oct. 9, 1918, on a hill near the Meuse River in the Ardennes region of northeastern France, a 23-year-old U.S. Army private from southern Illinois had just regained […]
Continue readingHow can anyone who has driven in a rural area on these early autumn days not lift a prayer of gratitude for the harvest now well under way? Ocean beaches relax us, tall mountains inspire us, but the beauty and bounty of a field being harvested is a sight that we who live on the […]
Continue reading“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” So encourages former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the latest Nike advertising campaign. Kaepernick is a polarizing figure for many, since in 2016 he began the practice of kneeling on one knee rather than standing while the U.S. national anthem is played before sporting events. Others […]
Continue readingBy the time this newspaper reaches homes, the first day of the new academic year will already be in the books at most Catholic schools in the Diocese of Peoria. It’s a “first day” only for the students. Principals, teachers, and maintenance personnel have been busy making plans and preparations — some since the final […]
Continue readingLike a good book, Nancy Piccione’s more than eight-year run as regular Book Page columnist for The Catholic Post ends with a satisfying and exceptional conclusion. Instead of making herself the focus of the farewell-for-now column found here, she spotlights eight (or is it nine?) takeaways from her reviewing experience to benefit all of us. […]
Continue readingThe dramatic, improbable, and some would say miraculous rescue of the boys’ soccer team and their coach from flooded caves in Thailand earlier this month will be studied for decades as a model of a diverse group coming together for an urgent, common cause. Lessons that apply far beyond cave rescues abound in areas including […]
Continue readingWe don’t know whether the retirement of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and the approaching nomination of a new justice by President Donald Trump, might eventually lead to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case legalizing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. We do know that a renewed discussion regarding […]
Continue readingBefore it is filed in the archives of memorable award show moments, we’d like to revisit something remarkably bizarre and troubling that happened at the Tony Awards honoring excellence in Broadway theater on June 10. Actor Robert De Niro, assigned to introduce a performance by Bruce Springsteen, strode to the microphone and announced “I’m just […]
Continue readingAs this issue of The Catholic Post documents in stories and photos, three priests of the Diocese of Peoria and a permanent deacon just rode their bikes for 275 miles across the Diocese of Peoria to inspire prayers for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. In just its second year, Priests Pedaling for Prayers […]
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