Over the past 45 years, women’s religious communities in the United States have suff ered a freefall in membership. There were 181,241 American nuns in 1965, 153,645 in 1970, and 92,107 in 1995. According to […]
Among the most moving events in the annals of ecclesiastical history are mass conversions to the Catholic faith. In the seven years following the appearance of Our Lady of Guadalupe, eight million sought baptism in […]
The Czech Republic is contemporary European secularism on steroids. Two decades after the Velvet Revolution, the nation of 10.2 million is wealthy, its per capita gross domestic product equaling South Korea’s and surpassing neighboring Poland’s […]
Addressing the societal collapse of marriage, the US bishops have issued a pastoral letter praised by defenders of the Church’s teaching on family life. In an August interview, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York discussed […]
Addressing a group of African bishops less than a year before his death, Pope John Paul II rejoiced in the vitality of the Church on that continent—a vitality that continues to this day. In 1978, […]
In 1928, when the future Pope Benedict XVI was 11 months old, the Holy Office, under the leadership of the vigorously anti-modernist Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, decreed that “the Catholic Church has always prayed […]
Nearly two millennia ago, a doubting apostle saw, believed, and preached the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Fifteen hundred years later, a student at the University of Paris met Ignatius of Loyola, helped […]
When Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected the 265th pope on April 19, 2005, many reporters failed to come to terms with his theological depth. Instead, they tended to view him politically, at times employing the […]
In his Dialogue Against the Luciferians, St. Jerome described the dissent, confusion, and ecclesial machinations that afflicted the Church in the years following the First Council of Nicaea. “The whole world groaned, and was astonished […]
Fourteen nations render special recognition to the Catholic faith in their constitutions, and an additional five declare Catholicism to be their official religion. Three of the five—Costa Rica, Liechtenstein, and Monaco—permit abortion in some circumstances, […]
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