21 DECEMBER

Today the new calendar honors a Dutch theologian who wrote a new catechism. He's a Jesuit.

C'mon, don't let the stereotypes get to you. This is better than it sounds. Read more about the
16th century doctor of the church St. Peter Canisius here if you have some time and here for a shorter precis of his life.

In the traditional calendar of Bl. Pope John XXIII this is the feast day of St. Thomas the Apostle. Thomas has come down to us as "Doubting Thomas" since he did not at first believe the testimony of the other apostles that they had seen the risen Christ. It seems to me that in Thomas we have a more reliable witness than in the other apostles. He was Thomas, called "Dydimus, the twin". He had been mistaken for someone else his whole life. "Hey, Al: you goin' the dance this weekend?" "Uh, actually I'm his brother Thomas. You'll have to ask him." Thomas was an expert from birth in mistaken identities. When he tells us that it was really Jesus Christ in that upper room and not someone who merely looked like him we have the testimony of an expert witness.