Next to Jesus, the most important person who ever lived was Mary — the Blessed Mother. For Catholics, our love affair with her began over 2,000 years ago when an angel visited a young Jewish girl and told her that she had
This is the fifth in a series looking at the Church’s 12 most recent popes and the marks they’ve made on the Church. The series appeared monthly throughout 2018. Although he surely didn’t intend it, Joseph Stalin’s cynical question — “How many
Spring is a time of newness, of being able to stretch out of our wintry confines and enjoy the refreshing warmth and light of our world. It’s a time of cleaning house and organizing. It’s also a time to open ourselves up
In his much-discussed indictment of secularized liberal democracy, Polish philosopher and sometime government minister Ryszard Legutko writes bitingly of the powerful and coercive “demon” he so abhors. Toward the end of “The Demon in Democracy” (Encounter Books, $23.99), he describes the problem
Last October, I took my 4-year-old daughter on a pilgrimage to various civil rights sites in Alabama, visiting the holy ground where so many civil rights protesters showed their heroic devotion to the Christian faith and to our nation’s highest ideals. We
This is the second in a series that looks at the Church’s 12 most recent popes and the marks they’ve made on the Church. The series ran in the first issue of each month throughout 2018. The Catholic Church has taught social
It happens all the time. You’re out at a social gathering and someone knows you are Catholic. Their curiosity, without fail, prompts them to ask questions that always have nagged at them. Why can’t priests get married, or why doesn’t the Church
When Washington’s venerable National Press Club played host last spring to a panel with the eye-catching title “Cyber Attacks and Just War Theory,” its linking of an ancient ethical theory to cybersecurity reflected the contemporary relevance of just-war thinking. Of course, not
A Catholic chaplain, a priest, was carrying Communion to patients who were bedridden in a hospital. The priest had a list of Catholic patients who had requested communion. In one of the rooms, as he blessed a patient and began to leave,
According to a new report, scientific evidence fails to support the “born that way” theory of sexual orientation. In addition, there is “no evidence” that “all children who express gender-atypical thoughts or behavior should be encouraged to become transgender,” the findings state.