Commentary
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,…
Courage Director: Synod Report ‘Wounds the Church’
The final report of the Synod on Synodality’s Study Group 9 has drawn widespread criticism since its publication last week — not least for what its authors wrote about Courage International. There are issues that make the report incomplete,…
Bishop Schneider: Vatican’s Synod report on homosexuality echoes “the serpent in the Garden”
Bishop Athanasius Schneider has launched a forceful critique of the Vatican’s new report on “emerging doctrinal, pastoral and ethical issues,” saying its treatment of homosexuality advances an “exegesis of doubt” in divine revelation that echoes…
The atheist and the machine god
The implications of artificial intelligence for religion have earned slightly less attention, thus far, than its implications for the job market or the U.S.-China arms race. But while we wait for the definitive word on the subject — meaning, of…
Why imperfect family prayer may be the most honest kind
There is a particular kind of silence I used to think was necessary for prayer. It involved stillness, focus and a kind of interior calm where nothing interrupted and nothing distracted. It was the sort of silence you imagine monks having, not…
The world needs Fulton Sheen
The trauma of World War II had engulfed the world. Millions of innocent people had died…Nations grappled in despair from tragedies that would scar them for generations. Then a voice cried into the metaphorical wilderness. The…
Ivy League students are suffering from religious illiteracy
I’m a Princeton professor. Many students know nothing about Christianity. The post Ivy League students are suffering from religious illiteracy appeared first on The Catholic Thing. Source link
Pope Leo: One year on
One year on, Pope Leo XIV has thus cultivated a reputation as the “quiet American pope,” methodically restoring decorum, legality, and serenity to the papal office while at the same time, in some areas, pursuing the general line of Pope Francis.…
The Vatican’s pro-life body has lost its way
The Catholic Church’s prohibition on the use of contraception is clear and unchanging, yet the tragic demise of the Vatican academy tasked with examining such matters is so great that its president remains unable to say whether he agrees with…
Beyond conversion: Newman’s forgotten priority
St. John Henry Newman is frequently remembered as the great convert of the 19th century; far less attention has been paid to the fact that he was also among the most perceptive critics of how conversion itself is pursued, measured and – one…