Going into my pastoral year, I never would have imagined that the Church in the United States would be going through the crisis that it has been enduring over the past few months. The actions of few in leadership have re-opened the wounds that seemed to have been healing and...
A few weeks ago, Joseph Cardinal Tobin of Newark gave the seminarians at Immaculate Conception Seminary a day of recollection in preparation for Advent and Christmas. In one of his conferences, he spoke about how we are “living in the midst of longing.” During the weeks leading up to Christmas,...
Hi my name is Carlo Santa Teresa and I’m a seminarian for the Diocese of Camden. I was born in 1989, in Voorhees, New Jersey, the only Child of Josefina Santa Teresa. Growing up I was raised in a Catholic family and one of my earliest remembrances was my grandfather,...
This past Saturday, the Church celebrated the 100th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to three letter shepherd children. To these unassuming little shepherds, Mary, whose month we celebrate, asked them to be messengers of peace to a world that was ravaged with war, a world...
Advent is a season of paradoxes. On the one hand, it is a penitential season in which we work to break down anything that keeps us from drawing ourselves closer to God. At the same time, it is a season of joy in which Christians throughout the world eagerly await...
This year, I have had the great privilege of working at Missionaries of Charity’s soup kitchen in Newark, NJ for my apostolic work. It has been an amazing experience to not only be a part of the work and mission started by Mother Teresa of Calcutta but also to experience...
The Church always appears to be at its liveliest when it is gathered around the Holy Father, and the visit of Pope Francis to the United States made that assessment very clear. From the moment he set foot on American soil, the faithful in the United States were invigorated by...
Throughout this past year, I have had the privilege of getting know a very close friend. This friend is a simple, yet profound person whose simplicity taught her to do the small things with great love, and by doing so, has led countless others to come closer to God....
There is a story of a man who was hosting a dinner at his home for a few friends. In the middle of the meal, he asked one of his friends, a Shakespearian actor, to entertain the rest of the guests. The actor, true to his artistic form, thrilled the...
In order for anyone to become the disciple that God is calling them to be, they must first come to the realization that they are real humans with real human feelings, emotions, and yes, flaws. And it is through these flaws that we realize that we are dependent on God...