Analysis
The Youth Synod: The next step in the Francis papacy
The just-issued document for the upcoming youth synod emphasizes social justice, the empowerment of women, and changing the Church’s moral teachings. […]
Articles by Thomas R. Ascik
The Dispatch
“Only Yesterday,” today, and the decline of religion
Frederick Lewis Allen’s popular work of history leaves the reader with the impression that the post-war 1920s is the original source of almost every fact […]
Analysis
Who are the friends of religious liberty?
A breakdown of who is siding with who in the “cake case,” Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, scheduled for oral arguments in the Supreme […]
Features
Church teaching and sexuality: What “no longer” holds?
For the past three years, the emphasis of Pope Francis and those close to him has been on “respect” and “listening”, with little or no […]
Features
Why Fr. Spadaro owes an apology to half of all American Christians
Antonio Spadaro, S.J., has pioneered a new kind of ecumenism: denouncing the content and quality of other Christians’ faith and slamming the Church doors in […]
The Dispatch
The 2018 Synod and the “new approach” to youth in the Church
In January, the Vatican made a formal announcement of the convening in October 2018 of a synod of bishops from across the world on the subject of “Youth, Faith, and Vocational Discernment”. At the same […]
Books
Catholic scholar’s new book argues that “religious free exercise is part of the secular Constitution”
In his new book, Taking Rites Seriously, Baylor University Professor of Philosophy and Church-State Studies Dr. Francis J. Beckwith reviews several areas of law and public policy with a view to showing how “a small […]
General
The Words of the Lineamenta: A Layman’s Perspective
My diocese was one of the dioceses that offered laymen the opportunity to respond to the Lineamenta, the pending document prepared after the October 2014 session of the Synod on the Family and which is […]