Commentary
America’s bishops and the birthright blind spot
American Catholics deserve moral clarity regarding the ongoing immigration crisis. Unfortunately, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ amicus brief in Trump v. Barbara this week failed to give them that. Their brief categorized…
Experts: Debates about Zionism, even by Catholics, often at odds with Catholic understanding
Some current public debates about Zionism, including among Catholics, are at odds with the Catholic understanding of the term, which itself has an array of meanings, as does the word “Israel” itself. Accordingly, broad catechetical education…
U.S. Military action in Iran is going well, but how will it end?
Some Americans, and American Catholics, are surely puzzled, if not angry, at the latest conflict. Another war in the Middle East. President Donald Trump has been purposefully vague on the war’s endgame. The conflict could last four weeks or…
Pius XII expert: No serious historian can call him ‘Hitler’s Pope’
March 2 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII and whose life and pontificate remain among the most studied and debated of the modern papacy. To mark the occasion, the Register spoke with Emilio…
Why do the bones of St. Francis draw hundreds of thousands of pilgrims?
Eight hundred years after his death, the remains of St. Francis of Assisi were exhumed and placed on public display in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi for a month-long veneration, highlighting the Catholic tradition of…
Historian reflects on Michelangelo’s ‘Last Judgement’ with Sistine Chapel restoration underway
The Vatican Museum has begun cleaning Michelangelo’s “The Last Judgement” fresco in the Sistine Chapel. Art historian Elizabeth Lev describes the fresco as “a clarion call to the cardinals of what it means to be Catholic.” Painted by…
The Ostermann fiasco is over; Notre Dame’s Catholic identity crisis isn’t
Abortion-rights advocate Susan Ostermann’s decision to withdraw from her appointment as the new head of the University of Notre Dame’s Asian studies institute is welcome news, so far as it goes. But it’s only the start of initiating a necessary…
Cowardice masquerading as virtue – The Catholic Thing
Long ago, I concluded that Europe’s elites, including British bien-pensants, have to scapegoat Hungary’s Viktor Orbán to escape blame for the messes they have made in their own countries via mass migration. I always invite them to Budapest to…
The SSPX rupture with tradition
The Society of St. Pius X is “open” to dialogue until it isn’t. Its alleged “openness” is contingent upon the conversation taking place only if it does so based upon the Society’s ground rules. In stark terms, what the Society is asserting is…
Bishops must reclaim the Church’s full immigration teaching
A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation. That statement should not be controversial for Catholics. It is not a partisan slogan; it is a basic moral premise of political community. And yet, for years, many faithful Catholics have…