Commentary
The DDF Marian document relies on poor argumentation, reveals double standard
Carl E. Olson, Catholic World Report Thursday, November 6, 2025 “Mater Populi Fidelis” comes off, in places, as an exercise in selective targeting while using argumentation that should, by all rights, be applied to a host of far more serious and…
Artificial intelligence bots deny Leo XIV is pope
For months now, something odd has happened when some internet users ask ChatGPT, the ubiquitous artificial intelligence tool from OpenAI, about Pope Leo XIV. “It looks like there might be a bit of confusion with the name, as there has never been…
The Inklings and abortion – The Catholic Thing
Jonathon Van Maren, First Things Wednesday, November 5, 2025 There is a connection between the twenty-first-century abortion wars and the Inklings of Oxford. Owen Barfield, the philosopher, novelist, and a key influence on both C.S. Lewis and…
Pope St. John Paul II and antisemitism
As the Polish pope taught, it is our civic duty to our fellow citizens of the stock of Abraham, who, not without difficulty, have nonetheless been fully participant in the American democratic experiment for centuries, as witnessed by George…
A Eucharistic way of life
Reflecting on Paul’s letter to the Colossians, we are immersed in a world of grace. Nor is this immersion merely a matter of detached, if ardent, speculation. It can change us, transform us, plunging us into baptismal waters of new birth, to…
Book Sheds Rare Light on Newman’s Vision for the Laity
Acclaimed Newman expert Paul Shrimpton says the newest doctor of the Church “foresaw the world we live in and tried to prepare Christians to face it.” Newman taught that the laity have a central and indispensable role who, in Church history, had…
False Patriots – The Catholic Thing
Donald Trump’s re-election felt like more than a mere electoral victory. It was a profound affirmation of American values and an unequivocal rejection of the lunatic ideas of the left, ideas designed to undermine faith, family, and nation. With…
John Henry Newman, Natural Religion, and the Mystery of Faith
On Monday, St. John Henry Newman will be proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo. It was Newman’s epistolary exchange with his brother Charles that first set the saint on the road to the composition of An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of…
On ghosts – The Catholic Thing
Can the boundary between this life and the afterlife ever blur in ways the Church has not fully defined? Each year, All Souls’ Day and the Month of All Souls renew age-old questions about life, death, and the mystery that unites both. In popular…
What does Leo XIV’s education letter say?
In Disegnare nuove mappe di speranza, Pope Leo addresses Catholic education. It begins wth a preamble, which describes the world of education today. Leo says we are living in a time of “rapid changes and disorienting uncertainties.” Students are…