LOOKING AROUND Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and eloquent witness who kept alive the memory of the extermination of 6 million Jews by the Nazis during World War II, died on July 2 at age 87. His mission in life was to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to speak out against forgetfulness and violence. […]
Father William J. Byron SJ: What is God like?
There are two abiding and important religious questions, both significant but one more important than the other, that we tend to confuse in their order of importance. The first is, “What is God like?”
Father William J. Byron SJ: Service and sacrifice
LOOKING AROUND Lent is a time to think about sacrifice and service. The generation of Americans who were kids during the Great Depression and in uniform during World War II tended to equate service with time in the military. As returning veterans, many went to college under the GI Bill of Rights and moved into […]
Father William J. Byron, SJ: What is that graduation speech really saying?
“I never saw a hearse towing a U-Haul,” remarked a friend of mine the other day. He was talking about the problem of materialism in contemporary life and the need to find ways of convincing the young that there is a whole lot more to life than making money and piling up possessions. That comment […]
Father William J. Byron, SJ: A father for those who need one
About 40 years ago I was able to offer pastoral assistance to a young woman who lost her husband, a former student of mine, in a fatal car crash. She was left with a 5-year-old daughter and relatively few friends in Pennsylvania, far from her native Midwestern home. I celebrated the funeral Mass, took care […]