Author: David Anders

Eulogy for Louis H. Anders, Jr. My fondest childhood memories are of drinking in the stories my father read to me by the fireside at night. With one foot propped on the hearth, and his elbow on the mantelpiece, dad opened his own heart to me and my brother through the books he loved. None […]

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Piety is an important Christian virtue, closely allied to the virtues of justice, mercy, and religion. St. Thomas ranks it as one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. For St. Augustine, piety is the wisdom God gives to worship God rightly. Scripture says that piety (godliness) “has value for all things, holding promise for […]

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. How should Catholics think about public policy during the pandemic? Even within our own diocese of Birmingham, Catholics disagree about the steps necessary to preserve public health. The tensions can run quite high and differences reflect disagreement about more than epidemiology. The coronavirus has exposed clashing ideological visions of the common good.    There […]

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. St. Paul was a murderer. This is the most salient fact about his personal history up until the moment he met Christ. He was so “zealous” for God and for the law that he persecuted those he thought were God’s enemies. Scripture says he was “exceedingly enraged” against them, followed them to foreign cities, […]

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. How we approach affliction is one of the most important questions in the spiritual life. Many traditions seek to avoid affliction, even making this their primary spiritual concern. The Catholic faith is not like that. It does not promise an end of suffering in this life. Although Catholics do much to relieve the suffering […]

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Non-Catholics have often accused Catholics of idolatry because we worship the Blessed Sacrament. From the non-Catholic point of view, the charge is fairly straightforward: Catholics worship bread and wine, which they mistakenly hold to be God. Catholics, for their part, admit that worshipping bread and wine would be idolatrous. We deny that we worship bread […]

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The Catholic Church teaches that God grants charismatic gifts: prophecies, speaking in tongues, healings, and other sorts of miracles. The Church also allows Catholic participation in the “charismatic movement,” a modern development that encourages Christians to seek these gifts as a regular part of their spirituality. Many Catholics have experienced spiritual renewal in their own […]

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I thought for a moment and replied truthfully, “When I encounter Christ in the Gospels, I sometimes find him intimidating. The sermon on the mount is not easy. Jesus makes a lot of difficult demands. He insists, ‘Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.’ Intellectually, I am aware of God’s mercy. But it’s […]

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I began to think seriously about becoming Catholic fifteen years ago. When I had almost made up my mind, I made an appointment with Msgr. Muller at Our Lardy of Sorrows parish in Homewood. “Father,” I said, “I think I need to become Catholic.” I’ll never forget what he said. “Are you marrying a Catholic?” […]

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