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Those who think they know the Garden State from only the window of their car while traveling along the New Jersey Turnpike are, as my late father used to say, “Turnpike Tourists.” It is easy to make fun of New Jersey while passing the many gasoline refineries on their way through the state to “somewhere else,” ignorant of the beauty that lies beyond the tankers and tarmac and the fact that their machines use those two

In the first year of his pontificate Pope Francis released his Apostolic Exhortation “Evangelii Gaudium” (“Joy of the Gospel”), urging bishops, priests and all the faithful to renew the New Evangelization and bring the Gospel to those at the margins of society. One way of achieving that, Francis reminds us, is to meet those individuals were they are and then accompany them in the same manner as Jesus accompanied the two disciples on the road to the

What does it men to “be a man”? Does the definition rely solely on testosterone, and reaching 18 years of age? My friend, Dan Duddy, has said many times, “I know 60 year-old boys, and 16 year-old men,” implying that  those adult males lack maturity and have not meet their responsibilities, while the teenagers do more than meet their age-related responsibilities–and thereby demonstrating how much closer they are to manhood. This scenario reverses the normal

Recently my son Kevin and I traveled to the Eastern Shore of Virginia, to visit my brother Joe and his wife Wanda, an activity that he, my daughter Maureen and I have enjoyed for many years. Joe is the oldest in my family of eight siblings (four and four), and next year he will have completed his seventh decade. Despite that advanced age (haha), he continues to demonstrate the joie de vivre by his inquisitiveness,

This blog post has taken longer than usual to complete, and that is because I was writing during breaks in the action of various World Cup matches. This Cup is the first that has captured my attention and interest, largely because of my recent vacation to Europe with my son Kevin and my daughter Maureen. Maureen and I flew there to attend Kevin’s graduation from Central European University in Budapest, from which he earned a