Catholicism
God Talk
Prayer, an elusive conversation with God, confuses many as St. Paul tells us, “For we do not know how to pray as we ought.” (Romans 8:26) The Spirit, Who prays in us “with sighs too deep for words” (Romans 8:26), searches our hearts, revealing…
The Future of the American Presbyterate
The Catholic Project at The Catholic University of America (where I serve as executive director) has just published the results of a new major survey of American priests. The study builds on our past research (here and here), giving a clearer…
The Wisdom That Directs Reason
In His discourse at the Last Supper, Christ teaches the Apostles about three related themes: knowing and seeing God, loving God, and being one with God. He holds out these three as different aspects of a single phenomenon. Christ tells the…
Pope Leo XIV, St. John Paul II, and the Fertility Crisis
Pope Leo XIV has joined the chorus of those lamenting the implosion of global fertility levels. Speaking after a visit with the President of Italy, the Pope urged action to implosion of fertility and the collapse of childbearing. Encouragingly,…
The Two Forms of Christian Service
Christianity is a religion of paradoxes. One is the strange relationship between the natural world that we see and the supernatural world that we do not. The latter is where God resides and is our ultimate home. At the same time, it is…
What Do We Owe? – The Catholic Thing
In the 2005 movie Cinderella Man, based on the life of boxer James J. Braddock, there is a touching scene in which Braddock, having had to take government assistance for a time to support his family, shows up at the public assistance office to…
Yes, Christopher Columbus – The Catholic Thing
Today is Columbus Day, or (among the alternatively oriented) Native Peoples’ Day, both displaced in any case, as even major Catholic feasts now are, to a different date, so that people will have long weekends, or not be inconvenienced, or…
Poverty and the Kingdom – The Catholic Thing
Pope Leo issued an encyclical on poverty this week. Perhaps he should recommend it in part as a cure for our ills. “Blessed are the poor,” says Jesus, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The only time I met the saintly Father Benedict…
Contemplation and the Cross – The Catholic Thing
In Herodotus’ Histories from the 430s BC, we read of a wise Greek philosopher and political thinker, Solon. While traveling, Solon met the King of Lydia, Croesus, who was known for his immense wealth. Croesus asked the philosopher what he…
Itching for New Foundations – The Catholic Thing
Ask an educated Catholic what the two leading teachings of Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum are, and, if he knows anything at all about this foundational text of modern Catholic social teaching, he will likely say that it endorses labor…