By Fr. Tirso Villaverde Associate Pastor St. Bartholomew Parish Readers will recall that on this past January 20th, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that almost all employers, including Catholic and Christian faith based employers, will be required to offer their employees health coverage that would effectively pay for sterilization, abortion-inducing...
By Fr. Tirso Villaverde Associate Pastor of St. Bartholomew Parish Reflections Recently on different occasions, several people have asked me if priests are allowed to be “freelancers.” To be clear, there is no such thing as a “freelancing” priest. All priests must be connected to a particular diocese either by his own...
By Father Tirso Villaverde Reflections St. Bartholomew Parish Associate Pastor This month’s article, and subsequent articles, will be directed mainly toward Catholics only because the topic will impact them in a great way. The end of October is the First Sunday of Advent. Catholics who regularly attend English Masses will be using the...
By Father Tirso Villaverdo St. Bartholomew Parish Reflections This past July, some of you may remember that Bishop Oscar Solis, auxiliary bishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, came for a visit to Chicago to meet with Filipino priests of surrounding dioceses and to promote the first ever National Assembly of Filipino Priests. ...
Reflections By Father Tirso Villaverde St. Bartholomew Parish There have been two questions that I have been getting lately from parishioners. The first is, “When are you going to be reassigned?” And, the second is connected to the first, “Why do you have to be reassigned?” Inevitably during a priest’s tenure at a particular...
By Fr. Tirso Villaverde Reflections St. Bartholomew Parish On the first day of this month, there will most likely have been some coverage of the beatification ceremony of the late John Paul II. It is a ceremony that will mark a major step in his being numbered among the countless Saints of the...
Reflections By Fr. Tirso Villaverde St. Bartholomew Parish Later this month, Christians throughout the world will celebrate the holiest days of our faith. With Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday, Christians will celebrate the culmination of salvation. For Catholic Christians, the celebrations on these days are marked by rituals that...
By Fr. Tirso Villaverde St. Bartholomew Parish Reflections Not knowing the exact statistics, it is most certain that every one of us has been affected by the disease of cancer in one way or another. Whether we ourselves are cancer victims and/or survivors or someone we know has been affected by it, cancer seems...
Reflections By Fr. Tirso Villaverde Contributing Editor As we begin the year of 2011, I think many of us cannot help but call to mind the “predictions” that the world will supposedly come to an end in the year of 2012. This is based on the theory that the ancient Aztec calendar, together with...
By Fr. Tirso Villaverde Contributing Editor “Ang Pasko ay sumapit! Tayo ay magsiawit ng magagandang himig dahil sa ang Diyos ay pagibig…” For most Filipinos, even for those who may have grown up here in the United States, the Christmas season is incomplete without hearing “Ang Pasko ay Sumapit” at least once during the...
