Russell Shaw writes from Maryland.
At the October Synod on Synodality, 10 topics that surfaced at the synod without sufficient time to discuss them. Last month, Pope Francis commissioned 10 study groups composed of staff from the Vatican’s synod secretariat, other sections of the Roman Curia, and
Dorothy Day's principal lasting influence on American Catholicism may have been to show a faith-based alternative to secularist progressivism. In 2023, Pope Francis wrote the foreword to a new edition of Day's 1938 memoir about her conversion to Catholicism, "From Union Square
Parishes closing or consolidating. Fewer and fewer people at Sunday Mass. An aging corps of priests and not enough new vocations to take their place. These and similar items combine in a pattern of downsizing by the Catholic Church nearly everywhere in
When a Pew Research Center Poll noted that only 31% of Catholics believe in the Real Presence, the American bishops launched an ambitious program called the Eucharistic Revival to face up to the problem and bolster faith in the Real Presence of
Mother Frances Cabrini worked tirelessly for the 'physical, moral and spiritual welfare' of Italians in need. She is the subject of "Cabrini," a 2024 film from Angel Studios directed by Alejandro Monteverde scheduled for nationwide release March 8.
Flannery O'Connor was not an evangelist. She was an artist, one of the most gifted American fiction writers of the 20th century. But a profoundly Catholic theological vision informs her art, giving her stories resonance and depth that sound deep -- and
Remember Humpty-Dumpty? He turns up in Lewis Carroll’s fantasy “Through the Looking Glass” and makes this famous assertion: “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." Thoughts of this come up
Thirty years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II published an encyclical on morality called Veritatis Splendor, or “The Splendor of Truth.” This was the first time a pope had set out the formal principles of the Church’s moral reasoning, and it remains
Have you ever wondered about those weekday feasts between Christmas and New Year's Day? They include two martyrs—St. Stephen and St. Thomas Becket—and the Holy Infants who lost their lives to Herod’s vicious pursuit of Christ. They also include the Apostle John,
Leveling hierarchical distinctions in the Church without removing them entirely has emerged as a principal objective of Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality, writes Russell Shaw. That is perhaps the chief conclusion to be drawn from the first session of the synod, which