The precariousness of things, the upside-downness of them, is a strange sign of hope for us...
It is a wonderful thing to live in a world where half the population is upside down in relation to the other half. There’s something magical about it. At any moment, half of us might fall off the earth but for the divine choice to make gravity a universal constant pulling all of us toward the heart of the planet as a mother pulls her wandering children to her breast and holds them close in a place of danger...
Pope offers prayers for Charlie Gard and his parents as legal challenge ends...
Does God harden human hearts?
One of the more difficult biblical themes to understand is the concept of God hardening the hearts and minds of certain human beings. The most memorable case is that of Pharaoh wherein, before sending Moses to him, God said he would “harden Pharaoh’s heart” (Ex 4:21). But there are other instances in which biblical texts speak of God as hardening the hearts of sinners...
The reality of spiritual adoption...
At the African orphanage where I worked, children received photo albums from their new families early in the process. They got a snapshot of what their life would be like when the adoption was finalized, a first glimpse of adoptive parents, siblings, homes, and bedrooms. And while it might seem that an orphan growing up in Ethiopia would be thrilled by your average American home with central heating...
It’s refreshing to find a new generation of Bible scholars who are taking historical research seriously...
I have had a terrific time researching and writing my new book The Mystery of the Magi—The Quest for the True Identity of the Three Wise Men. My own attempt at Biblical sleuthing got started when Dr. Matthew Bunson asked for an article about the origins of the magi for a Christmas edition of The Catholic Answer. Thinking that just maybe the Old Testament prophecies about the magi indicated their true origin...
Pope’ Sunday Angelus: ‘The line between good and evil passes through the heart of every person’...
“Did you ever think you'd known a saint?”...
Rome, the city of the emperors, is now the city of the Queen...
How Holy Hours and intentional prayer are transforming this parish in Panama City, Florida...
St. Mary Magdalene—A patron saint for hairstylists...
In his Gospel, St. Luke tells how one day a woman who was a notorious sinner entered a house where Jesus was dining with friends, and, to the astonishment of everyone in the room, knelt, bathed his feet with her tears, then dried them wit her hair. Luke does not give the penitent’s name, but a tradition that dates back at least to Pope St...
Was the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’ really a miracle?
Pope begins answering priests from troubled Nigerian diocese...
Fifty years ago, a “declaration of independence” in Catholic education transformed the Church (and not for the better)...
Fifty years ago this month, in July of 1967, a group Catholic university presidents and administrators met together at a retreat center in Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, in Wisconsin’s northern forest, along the border with the upper peninsula of Michigan. There were 26, invited by Father Theodore Hesburgh, then the president of Notre Dame...
Did you know Disney animated a beautiful prayer to Our Lady?
’Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony of humility...
One night at dinner ages ago, I abruptly announced that I wanted to go to nursing school. Nancy, my beloved, looked up from feeding our infant daughter and said, “You’re crazy.” She added, “You have no background in science or healthcare, and nursing school is really hard.” I shrugged and replied, “How hard can it be...
Cathedral of Córdoba in Spain targeted for reversing the Reconquista...
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Vatican turns off fountains as Rome gasps in drought...
This beautiful church in France is being demolished to make room for a parking lot...
Pope St. Pius V did more than anyone to secure the Christian victory at the Battle of Lepanto...
For those who are familiar with G. K. Chesterton’s glorious poem, “Lepanto”, St. Pius V will always be the pope who “called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross”. His heroic holiness during the crisis of 1571, when it looked as though the forces of Islam were once more threatening to overrun Europe, deserves to be branded on the conscience and consciousness of all civilized people...
Can anything burst Pope's media bubble? Nah, probably not...
Right now there’s a fascinating drama unfolding in the Diocese of Ahiara in Nigeria, where Pope Francis has thrown down one of the most authoritarian gauntlets we’ve seen any pope fling in a long time. He’s threatened every priest of the diocese, no matter where they are in the world, with suspension unless they write to apologize for spurning a bishop appointed five years ago because he doesn’t come from the dominant ethnic and linguistic group...
Texas archbishop: Deaths in smuggler's truck ‘an incomprehensible tragedy’...
This is why church pews were invented...
In the United States we see pews as a necessary and basic part of every Catholic church. However, pews are a rather recent invention and surprisingly didn’t even originate in Catholicism. For most of Church history, worshipers stood during the celebration of Mass. There did exist a few scattered benches for the elderly to sit on...
New 360° videos reveal the beauty of Rome in a new way...
Saint or ain’t? A homily for the 16th Sunday of the Year...
Even if a million deaths is a statistic, a single death is still a tragedy...
One of the most jarring statistics in the abortion debate is that between 30 to 80 percent of fertilized eggs never survive to birth. These numbers come from medical studies. Some embryos fail to implant in the womb. Some miscarry after implantation. The rest die later as the fetus develops. If the upper estimates are true, then relatively few conceptions lead to newborn babies...
Who is the patron saint of altar servers?
There are many ways to increase our love and devotion for Jesus in the Eucharist, and one of them is to consider the great love that many of the saints have expressed for the Blessed Sacrament. In his General Audience address of August 4, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI related the story of one such saint to a crowd of altar servers. During Roman Emperor Valerian’s brutal persecution of Catholics in the Third Century...
Adoring Christ with St. Mary Magdalene...
We celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene as a feast day on July 22, a liturgical dignity Pope Francis made official last year. Explaining her significance to a good Catholic life, Father Sean Davidson, with the Missionaries of the Most Holy Eucharist, presents her as “a true model of adoration” who “provides us with examples of the four pillars of Eucharistic prayer...
Unlocking the secrets behind the hummingbird’s frenzy...
Exactly fifty years ago, fads ran wild at the “Land O’Lakes Conference” in Wisconsin ...
William Inge (1860-1954), Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University and Dean of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, was frequently in the literary crosshairs of G.K. Chesterton for his anti-Catholic polemics and strident promotion of eugenics. Fortunately, Chesterton also rejected his advocacy of nudism. Given Dean Inge’s eclectic version of progressivism...
Venezuelan bishops offer day of prayer, fasting as riots continue...
Pope donates €25 thousand to East Africa famine relief efforts...
‘Dunkirk’ (Rotten Tomatoes 93%) is an improbable wonder of a film...
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