Journalists are understandably fond of conflict—after all, it gives them something to talk about. Media coverage and commentary relating to a drop in Pope Francis’ popularity rating in a recent Gallup poll was an illustration […]
In the prayer of the faithful said at Mass in my parish day after day we regularly ask God for “an increase of vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.” Sometimes “lay ministry” gets added […]
It’s an accident of history that the present debate on the six-nation nuclear agreement with Iran overlaps the 70th anniversary of the first uses of atomic weapons in war. Religious believers rightly consider ‘accidents’ like […]
Does the Supreme Court decision constitutionalizing same-sex marriage mean we’ve lost the culture war and need to raise the white flag? (As should be obvious, “we” here are traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants, and others who […]
Does Henry Higgins hold the key to settling the same-sex marriage debate? Not quite. But in the wake of the Supreme Court decision declaring a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, it’s well worth considering what […]
Anthony Kennedy’s opinion for a five-justice Supreme Court majority announcing the hitherto undiscovered existence of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage rests on one fundamental thought. Although it takes Kennedy 28 pages, plus six pages […]
Is spiritual direction intended only for a small elite group composed of clergy and nuns and a handful of laity with special vocations? Not really. Direction is for serious Christians generally, whether cleric, religious, or […]
The first and arguably most important thing to say about the Pew Research Center’s new overview of American religion is that it offers no grounds for either complacency or panic. What it does instead is […]
The persecution of the Catholic Church and other morally conservative religious bodies has begun in the United States. As predicted, it isn’t—thank God—bloody persecution like the persecution of Christians in many countries. But it’s real […]
Not long after St. John XXIII’s social encyclical Mater et Magistra made its appearance in 1961, a wisecrack began making the rounds among Catholics who’d taken umbrage: “Mater, si; magistra, no”—mother, yes; teacher, no. In […]
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