My faith motivates me to be interested in politics. The Hebrew prophets and Jesus eloquently express God’s concern for the poor, the sick and the powerless. Jesus and the prophets tell me that my concern should be for justice and peace.

My faith, however, does not tell me what government policies and programs will best serve the cause of justice and peace. In other words, I get my values from the Gospel, but I have to use my head to find programs to implement these values. And in the real world, I know that there are no perfect programs, and even if there were, it is politically unrealistic to think that such programs will receive unanimous consent.

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I believe in life after death because I am a romantic, I believe in happy endings, I believe in a just and loving God.

Those who have suffered from injustice in this world deserve something better. A just God calls on us to work for justice, but still too many people suffer from injustice. Not only that, life is filled with disappointment and disaster even without injustice. Without life after death, life is not a romance it is a sick tragedy, a cosmic joke.

If God loves us, then I think he would want to meet us face to face, not just through a glass darkly. Love requires presence, communication and communion.

I am agnostic when it comes to visions and visitations. Too many are the product of psychosis and hallucinations. Too many promote fear rather than love. Too many do not sound like the Mary or Jesus of the gospels. I would not trade the Magnificat for all of Mary’s so called visitations.

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Catholic teaching holds that there can be no conflict between faith and reason, but history shows us that sometimes scientists and theologians have been at odds. This often happens when either the scientist or theologian speaks outside his or her specialty.

Scientists who deny the existence of God have a right to their opinions, but they are not speaking as scientists but as philosophers. Likewise, theologians have no expertise in estimating the age of the earth.

For Catholics, the apparent conflict between Genesis and contemporary science was resolved by improvements in biblical theology, which respects the literary form and cultural context of scripture.

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Whether Halloween originated as a Christian or Pagan feast is much debated, but today it is a $5 billion money maker where anything goes as long as it sells.

Halloween was originally a Christian feast, according to Father Augustine Thompson, O.P., writing in Catholic Parent because it was All Hollows Eve, that is the day before the feast of All Saints celebrated on November 1. In some countries, on All Saints day, Children would dress up as their favorite saint. In other countries like France, they would dress as the dead on All Souls day, November 2. In the United States, dressing up on All Hollows Eve became the custom.

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