Commentary
Confession Isn’t Therapy – The Catholic Thing
Frequent confession was once normal—monthly, biweekly, or even weekly. But it became rarer among Catholics formed from the 1970s through the 1990s. Today, many Catholics go to confession only after major moral failures or when life feels…
Hochul’s tax credit and the fight for Catholic school choice
Give credit where it’s due. That’s the message New York governor Kathy Hochul seems to have embraced by opting in to the Education Freedom Tax Credit, part of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The post Hochul’s tax credit and…
The Vatican’s Long Game With Iran
Behind a recent controversial honor for Tehran’s envoy lies a history of back‑channel diplomacy, shared U.N. battles and carefully tended lines to the ayatollahs. The post The Vatican’s Long Game With Iran appeared first on…
‘Big Bang Theory’ and the myth of the modern atheist
The character of Sheldon Cooper presents disbelief in God as the inevitable product of intelligence and scientific progress, but history — and even modern science itself — tell a very different story. The post ‘Big Bang Theory’ and…
Oxford and the surviving Marian imagination of medieval England
There are cities in Europe where the Virgin still reigns visibly from stone and glass. England, after the Reformation, often feels different. Marian England became an England of absences: smashed statues, whitewashed walls, emptied niches,…
Pope Leo XIV seeks to revive talks with Coptic Orthodox after breakdown over “Fiducia Supplicans”
Pope Leo XIV today appealed for a revival of dialogue with the Coptic Orthodox Church after a rupture in March 2024 over Fiducia Supplicans, the Vatican declaration permitting blessings for same-sex couples. The post Pope Leo XIV…
The Catholic Church Is Focusing on the Wrong Crisis
Every attempt to correct inequalities through political intervention or global planning ends up destroying the mechanisms that generate real prosperity. The post The Catholic Church Is Focusing on the Wrong Crisis appeared first on…
Fr. James Martin: The “Mastermind” behind the two testimonies in the Vatican’s Synod Report on homosexuality
Jesuit Father James Martin was a key figure behind the inclusion of two testimonies in the Study Group No. 9 report on homosexuality, released earlier this month by the Vatican’s General Secretariat of the Synod. The post Fr. James…
AI and the miracle that makes us human
AI can simulate aspects of human reasoning and perform specific tasks with incredible speed and efficiency, but its computational abilities represent only a fraction of the broader capacities of the human mind. The post AI and the…
Our strange Catholic moment – The Catholic Thing
American Catholicism is in steep decline. In 2000, 2.6 million American children attended Catholic schools. In 2025, only 1.6 million did. In 2001, more than a quarter-million Catholic weddings took place; in 2024, around 107,000 did. In 2001,…