The Dispatch
Fides et ratio: An encyclical even more relevant today than it was in 1998
The philosophical currents that troubled John Paul II two decades ago and moved him to write Fides et ratio haven’t disappeared. […]
Pope Pius XII
Essay
Reflections on authority in liturgy today
Editor’s note: This essay was presented in a slightly different form as a plenary address to the Colloquium of the Church Music Association of America in Philadelphia on July 3, 2019. Introduction In some Anglican […]
The Dispatch
Symposium attests to Pius XII’s monumental work as Defensor Civitatis
“Comitato Papa Pacelli – Associazione Pio XII”, an organization for the beatification of Pope Pius XII, led by Roman Rota attorney Emilio Artiglieri, held a symposium on June 4th to commemorate the great work of […]
Features
Why ‘classical’ charter schools can’t replace Catholic education
As principal of a “classical” Catholic school and a lifelong advocate for the liberal arts, I am excited by the growing classical school movement—which now has reached even many public charter schools. Catholic families are […]
The Dispatch
The remarkable story of the search for Saint Peter’s tomb
On November 24, 2013, the world was treated to a remarkable sight. Pope Francis, the 265th successor of Saint Peter, held an ossuary containing the bones of the first pope. The current occupant of a […]
The Dispatch
Argument over Pope Pius XII’s response to the Holocaust is political, not historical
In his exhaustive history The Papacy in the Age of Totalitarianism, 1914 to 1958 (Oxford University Press, 2014), Cambridge University historian John Pollard expresses doubt whether the argument over Pope Pius XII’s response to the Holocaust […]
The Dispatch
Pope Pius XII: “His tiara turned into a crown of thorns,” says historian
Editor’s note: This interview was first posted on October 26, 2018, and is reposted today in light of the news that the Vatican will open its archives on the pontificate of Pope Pius XII. Pius […]
The Dispatch
“People deserve the truth, not just half-truths.”
Dr. Gerard Verschuuren is an expert in the fields of biology, human genetics, and the philosophy of science. He was born in 1946 in the Netherlands, and has studied and worked at universities in Europe […]
Essay
Unnatural Lawyering: John Finnis’s brief against traditional Catholic teaching on capital punishment
John Finnis is a prominent Catholic law professor and chief apostle of the “new natural law theory” (NNLT) invented by the late Germain Grisez in the 1960s. At Public Discourse, Finnis and I have been […]
Features
Pope Francis’ new comments on the death penalty are incoherent and dangerous
Debate has always been an invigorating and constructive way of defining and refining views, assuming that the debaters have minds of probity and reason. This is increasingly absent in our culture, where subjectivism rules, and […]