Author: Deacon Richard D. Shewman

Elie Weisel died last July. He was an award-winning author who survived the Holocaust and spent the rest of his life reflecting on and writing about the experience. When he…

Recently there was a meeting of the formation team that runs the Deacon Formation Program for the Diocese of Erie. I was at the meeting, since I’m associate director of…

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, recently spoke at a meeting to honor the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Union. He diagnosed the…

I got one of those self-administered automatic blood pressure monitors for my birthday a few months ago. I had slightly elevated blood pressure for several years and my physician put…

After living and working in Micronesia much of the time from January 1973 through November 1997 my family and I moved to Erie, Pennsylvania.  It was an extremely difficult decision…

Another understanding encountered in the Talmud draws on two images.   The first is the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; and the second is the serpent who tricked…

In recent years the prayer that the minister says when administering ashes on Ash Wednesday has become a bit more flexible, in that alternatives are allowed. Somehow it just doesn’t…

I try to avoid partisan politics in the Along the Way articles, as my goal is present gospel values and Catholic teaching, rather than political ideology of any shade. However, the gospels…

This installment of Along the Way is a bit different from my usual contribution, as it deals more with law and civics than with theology. However, as abortion has been such an…

Christianity, Judaism, Islam and other religious traditions offer a vision of the future in which God reigns supreme and all is right with the world. The lion lies down with…