The numbers – more than 1,500 men, women and children in twenty-five years - were staggering, but not surprising.

It was ecumenical – but not interfaith.

When officials from a Chinese medical school asked if “Dr. Flynn” could give a lecture on a subject way out of my field, American Maryknoll Father (and medical doctor, expert on HIV/AIDS) Scott Harris responded, “Give him a day to prepare and he can talk for two hours about the sex life of chopsticks.”

AuthenticHealers has received a preview of the 2026 International Society for the Promotion of Common Sense “What Are They Thinking?” Survey. 

We apologize…

To the Mark Twain fans who believe he was the first to make the cogent argument about figures, statistics, lies and liars.

Who knew?

We’ll admit, we were halfway stumped.

Halfway…

He was (probably never to his face) called a “pit bull” and “Rottweiler.”

Nonetheless, “the Rottweiler” would certainly have words for legislators in Texas, Louisiana, Florida and a handful of other states who are knocking themselves out (and exhausting many of us) demanding the placement of posters of the King James Bible version of the Ten Commandments in classrooms across the nation.

In a nationwide radio broadcast, Oscar Armulfo Romero y Galdamez signed his own death warrant.

“Do not fret because of evildoers
or be envious of the wicked, 
for the evildoer has no future hope
and the lamp of the wicked 
will be snuffed out.”
Proverbs 24: 19-30

Before and after whatever he experienced during World War II, “Big Mike” was BIG. Memories of more than fifty years ago are that from the time he woke in the morning until well after sunset his home was filled with music - Frank Sinatra or Italian opera. 

The United States Capitol’s Statuary Hall will host a special February 30^th ceremony at which Dr. Moelarrycurly Joeshempjoe will present (dis)Honorary Doctor of Theological Ignorance degrees to a member of the United States House of Representatives and a US senator. 

I still laugh about Blanca’s introduction to an “American” Roman Catholic version of one of  Christianity’s oldest prayers – dating at least to the early third century and Hippolytus’s Apostolic Tradition.

(For almost three decades, Father Skipper celebrated Christmas Eve Mass for a community of family and friends gathered in his parents’ home. Rather than to give a “sermon,” it was his custom to offer an original short story What follows is the introduction and one of those stories. Please accept it as a small gift during this Christmas season.)

(We hope you will accept the following
small offering as an early Christmas gift.)

Have you ever wondered about God?

I don't mean prayed. 

No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.

“We are going to do things to Nigeria that Nigeria
will not be happy about and may very well 
go into that now disgraced country 
with guns-a-blazin’.”
President Donald J. Trump
November 1, 2025

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
President Donald Trump
“Truth Social” post, November 1, 2025

“The love of God, the love for one’s neighbor…
All religion is found there…
How to get to that point?
Not in a day since it is perfection itself:
it is the goal we must always aim for,
which we must unceasingly try to reach
and that we will only attain in heaven.”
Charles Eugèn Vicomte de Foucauld de Pontbriand 

Get ready!

Two American Catholic priests – Anglican/Episcopal and Roman – are about to hail the wife of a North American Orthodox Church priest who has been named a saint (She has been named a saint; not her husband.) and a newly declared candidate for sainthood from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while resurrecting a song from 1945.

Despite some folks’ accusations, I’m not a “bleeding heart liberal.”

I believe some men and women “should never see the light of day in the ‘free world.’” 

“Free world” - a prison term that needs no explanation.

O Sweet God Almighty, what is this world coming to     ?!?!