By Sr. Mary Garascia, Ph.D.

 Perhaps you have seen the commercial that goes something like this: An apple appears on the screen. The voice-over says, “This is an apple. Some people say it’s a banana, but it really is an apple. That’s a fact.” Well, it is not so simple as that, is it, when it is not the facts themselves but the interpretation of facts that so polarizes us? 

By Sister Mary Garascia

 More than 15 years ago around this time of year, I got a call from a priest pastor. He implored me to speak at Mass on the weekend of the December special collection for retired Religious. His reason—”because, Sister,” he said, “we are a relatively new parish, and we have never had any Sisters here, so some people have never seen one!”

By Sr. Mary Garascia

 While visiting patients as a volunteer hospital chaplain, a man told me he used to be Catholic but he was not anymore, because the Church had all this money and was all about money. And, outraged, he gave me the example of seeing two nuns sitting in the best front row seats at an NBA game. Fortunately, I had not identified myself as a nun!