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News Briefs
  • [ May 18, 2026 ] Indian Catholics denied bail after confronting mob that disrupted Mass News Briefs
  • [ May 18, 2026 ] From Budapest to Princeton, Catholic scholars mobilize to reconnect faith and political life News Briefs
  • [ May 18, 2026 ] In Bangladesh, Caritas project puts Laudato Si’ into practice for poor families News Briefs
  • [ May 18, 2026 ] EWTN launches new family travel series ‘Fork in the Road’ News Briefs
  • [ May 18, 2026 ] Vatican to publish Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical May 25 News Briefs

Articles by Matthew Balan

About Matthew Balan
Matthew Balan is an alumnus of the University of Delaware. He writes for Catholic New Agency and has previously worked at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America, the Media Research Center, Human Life International and the Heritage Foundation.
Analysis

Report on “religious extremism” focuses on Catholicism, ignores Islam

August 4, 2025 Matthew Balan 48

A recent document by a European think tank decries the “accelerating financial expansion of movements working to dismantle decades of hard-won sexual and reproductive rights across Europe.” The report, published by the Brussels-based European Parliamentary […]

The Dispatch

Entering Heaven on Earth is a beautiful education in both art and the Faith

March 28, 2025 Matthew Balan 1

The famed St. John Cantius parish in Chicago is the founding site of the Catholic Art Institute—a non-profit that aims to promote “the essential need for beauty to elevate our senses and illuminate our souls.” […]

The Dispatch

The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne: ‘Fanatics’ of the Sacred Heart

December 19, 2024 Matthew Balan 6

On Wednesday, Pope Francis approved the universal veneration of sixteen Discalced Carmelite martyrs who were killed on July 17, 1794, at the height of the French Revolution’s bloody persecution of the Catholic Church. The limited […]

Books

“Thy will be done on earth”? On the anniversary of Quas Primas

December 10, 2024 Matthew Balan 8

“Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endures throughout all generations.” — Psalm 145 (144): 13 St. Benedict directed his monks to pray the Psalm above during Vespers on Saturdays. While the Book […]

The Dispatch

Using a mascot misses and obscures the point of the Jubilee Year

October 31, 2024 Matthew Balan 25

A social-media firestorm erupted on October 28 after Archbishop Rino Fisichella unveiled the official mascot—Luce—for the 2025 Jubilee. The female character, which bears the Italian form of the name “Lucy” (or “Lucia”), is depicted in […]

The Dispatch

Historical ‘mother parish’ seeks to shore up centuries-old foundations

September 26, 2024 Matthew Balan 5

A former Jesuit mission church that is considered the mother church of the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware—and connects it with the histories of three neighboring American archdioceses—is in desperate need of support, both figuratively and […]

The Dispatch: More from CWR

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    George Weigel May 18, 2026 1
  • Chad’s lay faithful join bishops in condemning rising violence, insecurity

    Ngala Killian Chimtom May 17, 2026 1
  • “Enthusiastic” Converts and Conspiracies

    Karl Keating May 17, 2026 12
  • Vatican sets up commission on artificial intelligence

    Marco Mancini May 17, 2026 7

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  • The “Ascension Sunday” absurdity
  • Indian Catholics denied bail after confronting mob that disrupted Mass
  • From Budapest to Princeton, Catholic scholars mobilize to reconnect faith and political life
  • In Bangladesh, Caritas project puts Laudato Si’ into practice for poor families
  • EWTN launches new family travel series ‘Fork in the Road’
  • Vatican to publish Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical May 25
  • SSPX and Rome: a half century of canonical tensions
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Also on CWR
General

Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, laments SCOTUS rulings: “we are about to sink even lower. God help us.”

Carl E. Olson June 26, 2013 0

Fr. Joseph Fessio, SJ, founder and editor of Ignatius Press, which is based in San Francisco, expressed obvious frustration this morning in commenting about the Supreme Court rulings striking down the Defense of Marriage Act […]

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