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News Briefs
  • [ November 12, 2025 ] Catholic schools in Bangladesh close amid political unrest News Briefs
  • [ November 12, 2025 ] Bishop Rhoades elected USCCB secretary, 6 committee leaders elected News Briefs
  • [ November 12, 2025 ] America’s bishops express opposition to indiscriminate mass deportations News Briefs
  • [ November 12, 2025 ] Pope Leo XIV proposes 19th-century Indian religious as a model of women’s emancipation News Briefs
  • [ November 12, 2025 ] Sister Mary Michael, last of Mother Angelica’s founding nuns, dies at 94 News Briefs

Articles by Dr. Randall B. Smith

About Dr. Randall B. Smith
Dr. Randall B. Smith is Professor of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, where he teaches courses on Moral Theology, History of Theology, Faith and Science, and Faith and Culture. His books include Reading the Sermons of Thomas Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide (Emmaus), Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Scholastic Culture of Medieval Paris (Cambridge), and From Here to Eternity: Reflections on Death, Immortality, and the Resurrection of the Body (Emmaus), due out in October 2022. He is also co-author of Why Believe? Volume 2: Answers to Life's Questions (Augustine Institute). Prof. Smith is the author of numerous articles in academic journals, but he also publishes a regular bi-weekly column for "The Catholic Thing."
The Dispatch

Opinion: Demonstrating what? Protesting who? And why?

October 22, 2025 Dr. Randall B. Smith 28

We recently had another round of “Not a King” demonstrations. As many have noted, we still do not have a king. So, good for us. One might have wished these crowds had been out in […]

Detail from 'Crucifixion' (c.1315) by Giotto di Bondone [WikiArt.org]
The Dispatch

Good Friday, Death, and Christian Life

April 18, 2025 Dr. Randall B. Smith 2

Mary weeps at the foot of the cross, and we weep with her. But we also must not stop there. For beyond the cross of […]

Features

Rights, Catholic Principles, and Prudence

March 17, 2025 Dr. Randall B. Smith 13

When we have political disputes in the country, one way of trying to help clarify matters would be to remind the interlocutors of the relevant moral principles that should govern their disagreement. Murdering innocent people […]

Features

Bishops, borders, and the (bully) pulpit

May 2, 2024 Dr. Randall B. Smith 32

“Texas Bishop Taking on Greg Abbott Gets Pope Francis’ Protection” is the curious title of an April 30th article in Newsweek. Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso needs “protection” from Greg Abbott? Are there Texas […]

Features

When a virtue-signaling Archbishop is more politician than pastor

August 29, 2022 Dr. Randall B. Smith 42

I am loath to criticize the bishops, or even a bishop, for several reasons. First, it’s too easy, and it is too likely to make the writer popular in a bad way. Second, bishops are […]

Features

The rule of law, not of bishops

August 24, 2021 Dr. Randall B. Smith 40

I have for years been arguing that the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church should have been — and in the future should be — adjudicated by Church tribunals according to the provisions of […]

Essay

In Memoriam: Thomas Gordon Smith (1948-2021)—A life spent serving Beauty

August 5, 2021 Dr. Randall B. Smith 7

I have long been fascinated by the project of the late Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) to renew the Catholic appreciation of beauty as a means by which God calls us to Himself. And yet, […]

The Dispatch

Things my wife wishes they had covered in RCIA

April 24, 2021 Dr. Randall B. Smith 42

I am an adult convert to Catholicism, as is my wife. She entered the Church after we were married and knew even less about Catholicism than I did when I entered, which wasn’t much. Because […]

Essay

What kind of relationship with God?

November 28, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 7

Editor’s note: This is the second part of a two-part essay. Read Part One here. One sometimes hears preachers exhort their congregations to enter into a “relationship” with God. I have no desire to diminish […]

Essay

What kind of relationship? On the “one”, the “many”, and things in the world

November 23, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 9

Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a two-part essay. Read Part Two here. Should we consider “relation” a transcendental property of Being? That may seem an odd question. The transcendental properties of Being are […]

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The Dispatch: More from CWR

  • Sportsmanship and the season of our discontents

    George Weigel November 12, 2025 13
  • Extra, extra! News and views for Wednesday, November 12, 2025

    CWR Staff November 12, 2025 6
  • U.S. bishops elect Archbishop Paul S. Coakley as USCCB president

    Catholic News Agency November 11, 2025 33
  • Opinion: Don’t blame Descartes—the dualism runs deep

    Matthew Becklo November 10, 2025 6

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  • Catholic schools in Bangladesh close amid political unrest
  • Bishop Rhoades elected USCCB secretary, 6 committee leaders elected
  • America’s bishops express opposition to indiscriminate mass deportations
  • Pope Leo XIV proposes 19th-century Indian religious as a model of women’s emancipation
  • Sister Mary Michael, last of Mother Angelica’s founding nuns, dies at 94
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Video: Pope Francis is not amused UPDATED

Catherine Harmon July 9, 2015 0

At the beginning of Pope Francis’ three-day trip to Bolivia—the second stop on his three-country tour of Latin America—the Pontiff was given an odd gift by Evo Morales, the country’s president: a crucifix in the […]

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