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Sermons from 2020 to 2021 are available in PDF form. Download Homilies by Francis X Clooney 2020-21 (PDF).

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No Silent Bystanders in an Evil Time
At a parish Mass yesterday, the 23 rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, I set the scene by reminding all who had gathered to pray for all who are beginning a new school year; for those who labor, particularly those who have wearying jobs, and those who wish they...

Mysterious but Gentle Wisdom for July 4, 2026
To be at an evening Catholic Mass on July 4, 2026, was attend the Saturday vigil Mass for the 14 th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As the priest for the Mass, I wore the vestments and stood in front. Of course, it was also to be at Mass on the 250 th...

A Wilder Spirit, This Pentecost
(After a homily given this morning, 730 Mass:) The first reading today, Sunday May 12, clearly anticipates the Church’s nearing the end of the Easter season, climaxing in Ascension Thursday (May 14) and Pentecost Sunday (May 26). The first reading is from...

Baptized for Mission
Baptism for Mission in 2026 Warfare and misery in Israel and Palestine, in Ukraine, in Sudan, in Iran; violence at home, the killing of immigrants and protesters; endemic poverty, unfairness that gives some lavish riches, leaves others burdened by...

Five Weeks Abroad

Reflection on my travels to three continents and five countries, and home again

Dharma, the Mahatma, the Saint
October 2-3 I was privileged to participate in a conference at California State University, Fresno: Peace and Dharma: Ethics, Nonviolence, and Justice in the Religious Traditions of India . It was sponsored, as every year, by the Uberoi Foundation for...

In the Light of the Cross
They shall look upon him whom they have pierced. (Zechariah 12; John 19) The Exaltation of the Holy Cross: September 14's feast commemorates the venerable tradition that St. Helena, mother of the emperor Constantine, discovered the cross of Jesus, and...

The Good Samaritan In Unneighborly Times
The Good Samaritan parable is told by Jesus In Luke 10, a learned scholar has been testing Jesus – “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” – and in turn is pushed by Jesus to give the very essence for Law: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all...

Roger and Me
Roger Haight, S.J., died on June 19, 2025, in New York City. Like so many others, I have been missing him these past several weeks. I have been thinking about his influence on me—how much he enriched me as a person, a Jesuit and a theologian. Roger and I...

Antisemitism in a New Testament Text
A New Testament Source for Modern Antisemitism Antisemitism has been on my mind lately — as is the case for so many of us, in the shadow of the violence engulfing Israel and Gaza for well over a year, with tremors shaking societies in the West. My own...

At Easter 2025
Resurrection and Resistance At the beginning of Lent, I was concerned and worried and angry, as many of us are, at the blatant cruelty, violence, and crass ambition unleashed upon all of us, but especially on the most vulnerable. With a mode of...

Loving Your Enemies at the Beginning of Lent, 2025
2025: We live in difficult times, to be sure, and when we see damage being done to our civic society, to our communities, and to the most vulnerable among us — violence multiplied a thousand times and more around the world — we are naturally roused, to...