Articles by Russell Shaw

The surprising election of Pope Francis plainly was no surprise to the people who really counted: the cardinals, that is, who swiftly chose him on the first full day and fifth ballot of the conclave. […]

“I hope we get a nice pope,” a good Catholic woman told me soon after Benedict XVI announced his resignation. “I don’t care whether he’s nice or not,” I replied. “I just hope he’s strong.” […]

 For the last several weeks I’ve been teaching an online course about the role of the Catholic laity. We’d just gotten to the subject of personal vocation when the startling news came through: Benedict XVI […]

Defenders of traditional marriage may not believe it, but the Supreme Court’s apparent intention to decide two important same-sex marriage cases by midyear may be a stroke of good fortune for their side. This timing […]

The disruptive results for individuals and society spawned by the revolution in attitudes and behavior regarding sex, marriage, family, and childbearing that erupted a half-century ago have become too obvious to ignore. These things were […]

As the prolife movement contemplates four decades of legalized abortion in the United States and asks itself what really needs doing to halt this hideous scandal, prolifers should consider adding a new word to their […]

Much has been said lately about how to do evangelization. I’ve contributed a bit to that myself. Now I begin to think that, instead of always stressing niceness, it might be good to give tough […]

The cardinal looked grim. “This is the situation now,” he said. “One political party is dangerous and the other is stupid.” Since that was said in a private chat, it wouldn’t be fair for me […]