Commentary
Assessing the fruits of the Jubilee of Hope
The Jubilee of Hope will conclude when Pope Leo closes the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica on Jan. 6. Now is an opportunity for us to begin to assess its notable successes and missed opportunities. The first great success is that it has given…
From Franz Schubert to Roger Staubach: ‘Hail Mary’ through history
As the old year gives way to the new, it is timely to recall two important anniversaries of the venerable Marian prayer, which has its genesis in the words addressed to the Virgin Mary by the Archangel Gabriel and became the Ave Maria a thousand…
Cardinal Sarah on sacred music, the Four Last Things, and true peace
The vital importance of sacred music to the liturgy, the need for every Catholic to be watchful and prepared for the Four Last Things, and the recognition that only Christ’s kingship will bring true peace were among the key messages Cardinal…
Mary’s fiat and the revolution hidden in the Creed
Cherie Blair, Catholic Herald Thursday, December 25, 2025 Mary’s response to the angel is freely given: “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord: be it done unto me according to thy word.” We too easily hear this as passive submission. It is not. It is…
‘A 4-Million-Euro Whim’: Notre Dame Cathedral’s new stained glass
Solène Tadié, National Catholic Register Thursday, December 25, 2025 French painter Claire Tabouret was commissioned by President Emmanuel Macron to create six contemporary windows to replace intact 19th-century stained glass designed by Eugène…
Christ at the center: How tradition anchors the development of doctrine
Larry Chapp, National Catholic Register Wednesday, December 24, 2025 In debates about Church tradition, there’s a false dialectic between a runaway progressivism that treats tradition like a Rorschach inkblot onto which one can project any…
Cardinal Müller is right about the Latin Mass
Speaking in a recent interview with Michael Haynes of Pelican +, the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith said that current approaches had deepened division within the Church rather than healed it. The danger of the…
The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
In a previously unpublished 2014 homily by Papa Ratzinger, the Pope Emeritus writes about the importance of the lamb in Scripture: “We find a first hint, a first prediction, in the story of Abraham: the sacrifice of Isaac (cf. Gen 22). God had…
Lessons from the Christmas Gospels
George Weigel, First Things Tuesday, December 23, 2025 Today, when the toxic fumes of anti-Semitism are poisoning public life and seem to be influencing far too many young Catholics (especially young men), the Gospel of the Christmas Vigil Mass…
Pope Leo’s China dilemma – The Catholic Thing
Paul P. Mariani, First Things Monday, December 22, 2025 There is good news and bad news about the Vatican’s policy of engagement with the People’s Republic of China. The good news is that the Vatican is talking to China. The bad news is that the…