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News Briefs
  • [ August 9, 2026 ] Pope Leo XIV: Stop vicious cycle of violence in Sudan and Ukraine News Briefs
  • [ August 9, 2026 ] Nigerian bishop in Muslim-majority region says being ‘creative minority’ is key to diocese’s mission News Briefs
  • [ August 9, 2026 ] Denver healing could move a nun jailed by communists toward sainthood News Briefs
  • [ August 9, 2026 ] Study shows society’s religious norms can affect children’s anxiety News Briefs
  • [ August 8, 2026 ] The Hillbilly Thomists hit the road with new album ‘Strange Land’ News Briefs

Articles by Dr. Randall B. Smith

About Dr. Randall B. Smith
Randall B. Smith holds the J. Michael Miller Endowed Chair of Theology at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. His books include Bonaventure's Journey of the Soul into God: Background and Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 2024), From Here to Eternity: Reflections on Death, Immortality, and the Resurrection of the Body (Emmaus Press, 2022), Aquinas, Bonaventure, and the Scholastic Culture of Medieval Paris: Preaching, Prologues, and Biblical Commentary (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Reading the Sermons of Thomas Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide (Emmaus Press, 2016). His next book, Mapping Bonaventure's Itinerarium: Context and Commentary, is due out from Emmaus Press this summer. His articles can be accessed online here.
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 […]

Essay

From our house to “God’s house”

September 7, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith, Thomas Dougherty 8

If the recent coronavirus pandemic has revealed anything to us, it should be how badly we house many of our elderly. But “house” is perhaps not the right term. Instead of “housing” them, we too […]

Features

Liberal Arts and the Pandemic

July 6, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 6

It’s a shame we’re not in the classroom these days, because the pandemic would be the perfect subject for discussion in a liberal arts university. Indeed, I would suggest it is precisely because of the […]

The Dispatch

Wrestling with a Moral Dilemma

June 1, 2020 Dr. Randall B. Smith 6

You are a soldier in Vietnam.  You have met and fallen in love with a Vietnamese woman. The two of you have a child, although you are not legally married.  Due to political reasons beyond […]

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The Dispatch: More from CWR

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    Father Jerry J. Pokorsky August 9, 2026 1
  • Beatification process begins for American missionary Juan Tomis

    Diego López Marina August 8, 2026 2
  • The newest two-year Catholic college in the South marks two milestones

    Kathy Schiffer August 8, 2026 3
  • Rebuke, revelation, and redemption: Saint Peter falters on the stormy waters

    Carl E. Olson August 8, 2026 3

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  • Pope Leo XIV: Stop vicious cycle of violence in Sudan and Ukraine
  • Nigerian bishop in Muslim-majority region says being ‘creative minority’ is key to diocese’s mission
  • Denver healing could move a nun jailed by communists toward sainthood
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Pope’s audience focuses on Mary’s prayers, role of prayer in the early Church

Carl E. Olson March 15, 2012 0

Pope Benedict XVI has begun a new series of general audiences, which will, he states, focus on “prayer in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Letters of St. Paul.” As he did so […]

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