Catholic Church
Of Muslim Cowherds, Catholic Martyrs, and Institutional Decline
It’s a common today to lament the widespread loss of faith in institutions: governments, schools, colleges and universities, courts, medical authorities, religions, and (not least) the Catholic Church. There are many reasons, good and bad, for…
The Thief of Joy – The Catholic Thing
“Thank God I’m not like that Pharisee!” Now, if that’s your response to today’s Gospel (Luke 18:9-14), then you probably missed the point. Because there’s more than a bit of the Pharisee in each of us, and not enough of the tax collector. Our…
Patronal Prayers – The Catholic Thing
For devotees of Cardinal Newman, the coming week was already highly anticipated, with his formal declaration as a Doctor of the Church on the solemn feast of All Saints. Then this week, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV would also name him…
Redeeming the Teeny-Weeny Self – The Catholic Thing
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Christopher Lasch’s final book. Published just a few months after his death, The Revolt of the Elites (1995) capped a series of five extraordinary works starting with his Haven in a Heartless World: The…
Leo XIV contra Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIV took his name to signal his closeness to Leo XIII, and yet in his recent Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi te, his statements sometimes seem at odds with his predecessor: on the root of social evils, the remediation of poverty, and…
Poetry as Prayer, and Prayer as Poetry
Of all the arts, poetry is the most inherently religious. Although it is often defined by the use of figurative language, rhythm, and sound devices, what really separates poetry from prose is its subject matter, which transcends the literal and…
Pope Leo’s Whopping Lie on Religious Freedom
“The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous,” Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s minister of propaganda, wrote in a 1941 essay titled Churchill’s…
What Would C. S. Lewis Say About Women’s Ordination?
The announcement of the appointment of Sarah Mullally as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury marks a historic first for the Church of England (CoE), which traces its origins back more than 1,400 years to the time of Saint Augustine of Canterbury.…
The Holy Sepulcher in New York
There’s a show, To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum, at the Frick Collection in Manhattan (the entrance is just off 5th Avenue at E. 70th St.). It will run until January 5, 2026, and is well worth seeing. If you’ve not…
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…