2026
Are Americans Immoral? – The Catholic Thing
Yes. But so have many people been throughout history. And now some good news, although it’s the only good news. The Pew Research Center recently released a report, What Do Americans Consider Immoral? (We should be cautious about that verb,…
‘The Sanctifying Power of this Night’
“And it came to pass – when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses’ hand, when he came down from the mount – that Moses knew not that the skin of his face sent forth beams while He talked with him.”…
On Doing the Right Thing
For Christians, this week is the heart of our liturgical year. Easter week is a time of gratitude and celebration; a time of joy that rises above the frictions of everyday life and reminds us of our eternal destiny. But of course, a fallen…
Space Exploration and the Cosmic Liturgy
Around the corner from my old office in the Apostolic Palace is the Torre dei Venti, a sixteenth-century tower housing the sundial Pope Gregory XIII used to correct the Julian calendar. Aided by a team of brilliant Jesuits, Gregory tracked the…
The Reconsecration of Man – The Catholic Thing
The days immediately following Easter are usually a period of interior peace for believers, but also mystery. The Resurrection’s afterglow, of course, but also a lingering question, especially this year as wars and civic unrest trouble the whole…
Easter: God, Love, Life – The Catholic Thing
During the first half of the 20th century, there emerged an extraordinary constellation of English Catholic writers, many of them converts, who had the great gift of being able to explicate the Catholic faith on a popular level without watering…
The Lord’s Descent into Hell
What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were…
The Seven Last Words of Christ
It seems to be a fact of human psychology that when death approaches, the human heart speaks its words of love to those whom it holds closest and dearest. There is no reason to suspect that it is otherwise in the case of the Heart of hearts. If…
St. John Paul II, Priest
Beginning in 1979, Pope John Paul II took up the habit of writing an annual letter to priests which would be published on, or just before, Holy Thursday. These letters allowed John Paul II an outlet for repeated meditation on the nature of the…
The Week of Holy and High Ambition
This is the week when we contemplate, more than any other week, how much we are loved. This is the week when the words of John’s Gospel, that we are “given power to become children of God,” are brought to fulfillment. This is the week when we…