On March 19, 2007, a massive piece of traditional religious art was unveiled to delighted parishioners at Mission Basilica San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. The Grand Retablo, or decorative altarpiece, stands 42-feet high by […]
The poet Czeslaw Milosz once observed with wonder that by the end of the 20th century the only real defense of reason came from the papacy. Paralyzed by skepticism and relativism, academia had given up […]
Roughly 10 years into his pontificate, John Paul II penned an apostolic letter, Mulieris Dignitatem (“On the Dignity and Vocation of Women”). The letter indicated not only that he took women and their call to […]
6:12 AM I’ve been awake for a little more than a half hour, and I am now at the mercy of an elevator—a somewhat comical temporal detail of a life lived in the […]
Recent census data, which indicates that some 10 percent of the inhabitants of the Irish Republic were born overseas, brings the changing face of Irish society into sharp focus. After decades of mass emigration following […]
In his famous Rule, St. Benedict (480-547) lays out a way of life that includes the celebration of the Divine Office, prayerful reading, silence, manual labor, hospitality, and obedience to an abbot—all within the context […]
There is a gathering storm in the United States, threatening the right of conscience protected under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Although many other groups’ conscience rights have […]
Last April the director of the Vatican press office, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, confirmed reports that Pope Benedict XVI would travel to the US in 2008. Immediately the rumor mills began to churn. The Holy […]
Dear Friends: You have my sympathy. When I worked for the American bishops’ conference, I helped organize two of John Paul II’s US trips, and I know what you’re up against—millions of details, thousands of […]
The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC), a group said to represent 400,000 people, sent a letter to the Vatican last November requesting “full, corporate, and sacramental union” with the Church, according to The Catholic Herald in […]
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