Here a scandal, there a scandal, and pretty soon you’re talking real depravity. As the Church shudders almost daily from new stories of corruption, the faithful wonder if this is the worst ecclesiastical era ever. […]
Western civilization is “waiting for another Benedict,” according to philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre. But why single out St. Benedict of Nursia (480-547) as a model for treating the ills of modern society? As the father of […]
The lie known as the blood libel is the ugliest expression of antisemitism. It accuses Jews of kidnapping and murdering Christians to obtain their blood for magic, medicine, or matzoh-making. The victims—typically small boys—were not […]
As we celebrate this official Year of St. Joseph, announced on December 8, 2020 by Pope Francis, Catholics readily join in paying tribute to a great and well-loved saint. Surely Our Lord’s foster-father has always […]
We Three Kings of Orient are, Bearing gifts we traverse afar. . . . Who were these gift-bearing kings, these Wise Men of the East? What has their mission meant to Christians across the ages? […]
Editor’s note: Part One of this essay was published on October 30, 2022. (Editor’s note: A different version of this article ran in CRISIS magazine in October 2001. Witches Everywhere How many people died in […]
The stench of their burning is with us yet. The stakes and gibbets where witches perished by the tens of thousands during Earl Modern times still stand in popular imagination. For historians, the Great European […]
The rosary is the best-loved devotion in the Catholic Church. But where did it come from? Contrary to pious belief, it did not descend ready-made from heaven. The familiar story that Our Lady herself gave […]
Among the other female Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Therese of Lisieux—Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) blazes in colors all her own. Medievalist Peter Dronke describes her as “an overpowering, electrifying […]
O most noble memorial; to be commemorated in the innermost heart, firmly bound in the soul, diligently kept in the depth of the heart, and recalled by earnest meditation and celebration. – Pope Urban IV, […]
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