“Dear friends, Lent is not only a time for personal conversion. It’s not about becoming ‘better', but it’s about overcoming the 'noonday devil' that wants to keep us from believing and living in the certainty that we are one Church, one human family and one Body of Christ with...

The Xaverian Missionaries have been working in Sierra Leone, West Africa since the early 1950’s. In recent times we have moved to the peripheral area of Mongo Bodugu. The mission of Mongo Bendugu is settled by the Koranko Tribe, traditional Muslims who migrated from the nearby borders of Guinea in...

The Gospel for February 8, 2015: Mark 1: 29-39 A time will come for singing when all your tears are shed, when sorrows chains are broken, and broken hearts will mend. The deaf will hear your singing when silent tongues are freed. The lame will join your dancing when...

One of the more remarkable projects out there today is one called: Civil Conversations Project: A Public Forum Providing Ideas and Tools for Healing our Fractured Civic Spaces. It is hosted by Krista Tippet. Each week, those who listen to her show ‘On Being’ have the opportunity of listening...

On January 11 National Awareness Day for Human Slavery and Trafficking was held with activities throughout the country to spotlight this insistent, relentless injustice that harms mostly women and children. Religious leaders from around the world gathered at the Vatican with Pope Francis in order to declare together that...

Fr. Luigi Brioni, Xaverian Missionary in Sierra Leone for many years shares a candid look at Christmas in Sierra Leone at a time when the Ebola virus is claiming many lives. Please pray. Dear Friends and Xaverian Brothers to my heart: It’s Christmas again this year, with the Babe...

This news was gleaned from the Interfaith News Roundup of the Interfaith Observer. This is a very useful resource for those interested in interfaith dialogue and collaboration. Pope Francis may have been the busiest cleric on the planet last month. He vigorously chided European leaders for being unconcerned about...

We ran across an interesting blog post on Huffington Post by Mickey Mooney who authored the book, An Outsider’s Guide to the Gospel. Mr. Mooney represents a growing number among our younger generation who are foregoing participation in institutional religion and are find their own ways to live out...

We ran across the blog of Rachel Held Evens which brings an insightful point to what some have called the cultural wars of Christmas. Some Catholics and other Christians imagine a kind of “persecution” from our non-Christian friends, religious or not by imagining that Christ can be “taken out of...

Fr. Girolamo Pistoni, Xaverian Missionary, points toward Sierra Leone his home Fr. Girolamo Pistoni, Xaverian Missionary and pastor of our parish, St. Guido Conforti in Makeni, Sierra, shares his experience as the parish grapples with the terrible effects of the Ebola Virus.  When the virus Ebola hit the Northern...