The driver of the dilapidated pre-war Packard impatiently waited in bumper-to-bumper traffic on North Eddy Street and finally pulled into a lot near the Notre Dame stadium amid a throng streaming toward the gates.
Orphaned at age 4. Never owned a home. Lived most of his life in a YMCA.
Those biographical details would be unlikely to qualify a person as a hot prospect in the eyes of fund-raisers. So you can imagine the surprise of Notre Dame’s development department when it found out a man fitting just such a description was leaving the University $1.5 million.…
May 11, 2009, was a memorable week at the University of Notre Dame, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the visit by President Obama.
For five years, I had been haunted by the 26 hours of suffering and isolation my mentor, Father Robert Schwenker, must have endured as death approached.
Last week I attended a seminar with my daughter, “First Reconciliation Workshop.” The gist was that God has rules just like our parents have rules, and if you break God’s rules He will forgive you and always love you, just as your parents do.
I still remember the quizzical looks I got in 1974 when I took my newly minted bachelor’s degree in theology and marched naively into law school. The most common reaction was: “So, were you planning on becoming a priest?”