Trump and the Journalists
As Americans await a volatile, unpredictable new president, many are understandably nervous at the prospect of a chief executive so largely an unknown quantity as this one. In these circumstances, the need for a free, […]
Articles by Russell Shaw
Opinion
St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Christmas Blues
For many people, the season of good cheer is a deeply trying affair. I don’t mean unhappy souls who have good reason to be sad—the loss of loved ones, poor health, loneliness—but those who feel […]
Uncertainty, cautious hope for the Supreme Court
Many social conservatives, though by no means all, were ecstatic at the election of Donald Trump. Whether they’ll still be ecstatic a few months down the line cannot be predicted—and by no means is this […]
General
The impossibility of transmitting faith
Someone asked me to give a talk about the family’s role in transmitting faith, and I agreed. Claiming no special expertise on the subject, I simply sat down and thought it through in a common-sense […]
Analysis
Looking at vocations and the next Synod of bishops
When the pot is boiling, turn down the heat. You can’t be sure, but that could well have been part of the reasoning behind Pope’s Francis’s decision to choose as topic of the next world […]
Opinion
Pope Francis and Martin Luther
At the end of October Pope Francis will travel to Sweden to join a Lutheran World Federation observance opening the 500th anniversary year of Martin Luther’s break with the Catholic Church and the start of […]
New threats to religious liberty
Last June five justices of the U.S. Supreme Court thumbed their noses at religious liberty. They accomplished that without spoken comment simply by turning down an appeal by a family pharmacy in Washington state from […]
Essay
The immense—and demanding—mercy of God
In a message to a gathering of bishops of the Americas in Bogota, Colombia, Pope Francis made a point that’s always worth recalling but especially timely now in this Year of Mercy. Sin exists, he […]
The strange, even bizarre, race for the White House
If this presidential campaign isn’t the strangest race for the White House ever, it will do until a stranger one comes along—and I’m in no hurry for that. With good reason, many Americans are asking what […]
A Canticle for Leibowitz—and for 2016
I’d been running into references to the book every now and then for years. People told me I really ought to read it. But somehow I never got around to that. Then a friend forced […]