Past Magazine Stories

“Lindisfarne is magical, especially when you’re going there barefoot.” This advice from local pilgrimage organizer Rachel to Columban Frs. Kevin McDonagh, Tim Mulroy and I…

For a very long time, humanity has pondered a single question: “What is the difference between humans and animals?” Countless scholars have offered various answers. The…

We’re Going Fishing

The 75th anniversary of the Columban mission in Negros (1950–2025), celebrated November 22–24, 2025, commemorates a legacy of “integral evangelization” that has deeply…

I was thinking a little about the relation between Columban missionaries and the communities where we serve. It is so different in each case depending on our own…

The relationship between Columban missionaries and the communities they serve is rooted in a spirit of partnership, respect, compassion, and shared faith. While…

I am a link. A link to what? A link between what began decades ago and the imagined future of a recovered and restored forest. Decades ago, San Columbano de Bantolinao was…

Across the red dust roads and rivers wide,
Where hunger once walked barefoot in the sun,
Th ey came with faith not carried as a pride,

Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright, once wrote, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” (The Decay of Lying: An Observation, 1889). There is a certain…

As a priest of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, I was given permission by my bishop to do missionary service for five years and was accepted by the Columban Fathers in…

Last year, in 2025, a major controversy emerged surrounding a proposed wind energy project near Mount Banahaw (in the Philippines), affecting communities in Laguna and…

“Happy Buddha’s Birthday!” It is a greeting rarely heard in the Philippines, where nearly 80% of the country’s 110 million people are Catholic. Yet on the second Sunday of…