All Commentary

I've been thinking lately about the disconnect between the spiritual and modern culture, which does its best to squeeze the spiritual out. I've tried to capture one aspect of the problem, as it affects even Catholics, here: Against a Facile Assurance of Salvation, the Need for Mystery. Still,...

It is likely that too many Catholics think too little about their own salvation, but perhaps not only for the most obvious reason. My own first thought is that such a dearth of due diligence concerning salvation is a result of secularization. We are part of a culture which more or less...

We've released a new ebook at shop.catholicculture.org. It is a collection of my essays over the past six years on Catholic social teaching and the problems we face in orchestrating the social order. See Making Sense of Society. Collecting essays which deal with social principles is no easy task....

As you watch, a priest places his hands on a man’s head and prays silently for a few seconds. What did you just witness? A blessing, right? That wasn’t a tough question. Pretty basic, for anyone with even a passing knowledge of Catholic practices. But that’s not how reporters...

This past Tuesday we buried Sheila Catherine Beirne, a sweet 6-year-old girl who succumbed to Leigh’s Disease. The Beirnes are a big happy Catholic family, with a deep faith and a wide circle of friends. The church was packed for the funeral, with brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and...

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny has outdone himself with the claim that the legislation advanced by his government, which would allow for legal abortion in some circumstances, “obviously doesn’t change the legislation on abortion.” The proposal advanced by Kenny obviously does...

This Friday Insights message comes to you on Thursday because I will be helping a son move to New York City tomorrow. What strikes me most this week is this: Pope Francis has done it again and again! Our new pope keeps expressing profound truths in apt phrases which are both powerful and...

Frankly I’m tired of reading stories like this one, about people who have stolen money from Catholic dioceses, parishes, and schools. It’s time—it’s long past time, actually—for some tighter financial controls. For years I served on the board of an ecumenical initiative: a pregnancy-help...

By the end of the day I expect to hear at least a half-dozen complaints that Pope Francis has sided with socialists, because of his Thursday address denouncing the “cult of money.” The same problem arises whenever a Pope—or any other Christian leader—denounces selfishness...

Being a 65-year-old curmudgeon, I sometimes have to be reminded that social media has its uses, despite the fact that CatholicCulture.org maintains two different Facebook pages (see www.facebook.com/catholicculture and www.facebook.com/liturgicalyear). Heck, I even tweet the appearance of most of...

Today Pope Francis acted like a cheerleader. At his regular weekly audience he asked the 80,000 people in St. Peter’s Square if they would pray daily to the Holy Spirit, and when they answered, he tried the old crowd-rallying technique. “I can’t hear you!” he said, and...

While still an Anglican, Blessed John Henry Newman had some trouble coming to a Catholic appreciation of the role of the saints in Christian life. He seems to have understood from the first that the saints were wonderful witnesses to Divine realities and a superb inspiration to us all, but he...

Sometimes I am astonished by the spiritual riches of the Church, not least in her innumerable holy men and women down through the centuries. In the present, despite the many problems the Church faces, she is still growing in Asia and Africa. And while the number of religious continues to...

Please read and reflect on our little story about Pope Francis refusing to allow photo-ops to communicants guilty of public scandal. You may recall that, under different circumstances, this is exactly the issue which both Phil Lawler and I raised when USCCB President...

We absolutely must continue to focus on the New Evangelization. I mean we must continue to bring the Good News of our Savior to those in cultures which once received it but have since rejected it. And so I continued to try to explain this week What It Means to Center Evangelization on...

My effort to pinpoint The One Very Substantial Key to the New Evangelization elicited some very interesting comments. In several cases, the comments were at the same time critical and not critical, or perhaps I was simply not sure of the point. (When I’m unsure of the point for a Sound Off!...

If you read today’s top CWN headline quickly, you might have come away with the impression that the total costs of the sex-abuse scandal to American dioceses has been $2.62 billion. That’s not quite right. If you read the headline carefully, you’d notice that the $2.62 billion...

Pope Francis has begun his assault against the secularization of religious life, attacking the late-20th century tendency to separate religious commitment from the Church in order to serve the spirit of the world. We have seen this tendency in the shift to purely secular service among women...

Would people in your parish/school/organization enjoy a beautifully illustrated book about Pope Francis and the conclave that chose him? Are you looking for appropriate gifts for graduates? For a Confirmation class? Do you want to stock up early on Christmas and/or birthday presents? A Call to...

A pastor in the Trenton diocese has resigned--apparently at his bishop’s request—because he allowed Father Michael Fugee to join in youth-ministry activities, despite an agreement with prosecutors that barred Fugee from unsupervised contact with children. There might be a message...

Even while Pope Francis is working on the reform of the Curia, there comes a rare outburst from the Prefect of the Congregation for Religious against the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. But in classic Vatican style, the difference of opinion is immediately denied. I suspect the...

The defense of the Leadership Conference for Women Religious by the president of the International Union of Superiors General would be funny if it were intended as a parody. Read the story and you’ll see what I mean. According to Sister Mary Lou Wirtz, the problem is simple: Since Vatican...

If you treasure your Faith, you never want to lose it. Your Faith is the pearl of great price, the guide and goal of your very existence, the one thing you simply cannot do without. And this means you find it difficult to understand the immense indifference toward the Christian Faith on the part...

Today’s bizarre public statement from the Vatican press office, denying what any intelligent observer recognizes as the truth, does contain one nugget of reality. The statement denies that there has been any difference of opinion between Cardinal Braz de Aviz and Archbishop Müller,...

For reasons I don’t fully understand, weekends always seem to bring out the most egregious distortions in media coverage of the Catholic Church. Consequently, on Mondays I often feel obliged to warn readers about stories that are misleading, or just plain false. Today I’ll highlight...

Over the past few months, it has become increasingly clear to me that many of the errors circulating throughout the Church today are caused by a simple failure to grasp how theology really works. On every side, people seem to think their understanding of the Faith can be whatever they want it to...

The late Fr. William Most—the theologian and Scripture scholar represented in our special Most Collection—influenced me in many ways. One of the most valuable lessons he taught me was a fundamental principle of theological method in resolving apparent differences in Magisterial...

Volume 5 of the current 2012-2013 liturgical year series has just been released. It covers the first half of the long stretch of Ordinary Time between Easter and Advent, namely May 20 through August 24th. The final volume 6 will be released in early August. You can purchase and download any...

The next time someone tells you that Benedict XVI was an authoritarian Pontiff, or that he lived in luxury in the papal apartments, remind him that the former Pope, a renowned cat-lover, didn’t keep a cat during his pontificate. Why not? Because he was told cats weren’t allowed in the...

Veteran reporters (myself included) are wrestling with the question of how to cover the homilies delivered by Pope Francis at Mass each day in the Domus Sanctae Marthae. We’re all accustomed to seeing formal statements from the Pontiff, but these daily meditations, delivered...

Then there’s this from our Catholic World News service yesterday: “At a campus parade sponsored by the Carnegie-Mellon art department, a female undergraduate marched wearing a costume meant to resemble that of the Pope, while naked from the waist down. She distributed condoms along the parade...

In two different stories covered by today’s CWNews headlines, a rebuke from a Catholic bishop prompts a truly absurd defense. Consider first the case of Carnegie-Mellon University, whose administrators are not yet ready to concede that an undergraduate should be disciplined for parading on...

Two strange news stories leave us scratching our heads about the Church in the United States. First the Archdiocese of Newark, after all of the Church's experience with the fallout from sexual abuse, is standing by Father Michael Fugee under bizarre circumstances. Talk about a test case for Pope...

For months the American bishops struggled mightily to convince President Obama that he should exclude abortion coverage from his health-care plan. Did they ever have a chance? The question may be moot now. Still let's pursue it, if only for the sake of the historical record. You already know...

At last someone got it right. A Reuters report on the latest ceremony staged by “Roman Catholic Womenpriests” begins this way: "In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group...

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Graham tells me something that I hadn’t heard about Boston Marathon bombing. As dozens of victims were sprawled across Boylston Street, many of them in danger of death, Catholic priests came running to the scene—and were turned...

Tomorrow I'll be driving to Indianapolis for a grandson's First Communion. It is a privilege, but it means that my normal Friday Insights message is coming to you on Thursday. In our newest Thursday commentary, Phil Lawler uncovers a bit of a scandal: The American bishops are still doing...

"Just as the banishment of lepers was fueled by medieval myths, the hysteria surrounding child sexual abusers is exacerbated by myths about those who suffer from sexual deviancies. Child molesters incarnate our deepest childhood fears... Our myths about child molesters come more from the...

Archbishop Piero Marini’s support for legal recognition of same-sex unions is interesting for several reasons. Marini is the president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, and he made his statements in an interview in connection with the current National...

When he ordained ten deacons to the priesthood on Sunday, Pope Francis was characteristically direct: Be pastors, not functionaries. This speaks to all of us. We must all act with a sense of mission, not just fulfill some minimal role. It is precisely this that the Second Vatican Council...

A Call to Serve, which I co-authored with Stefan von Kempis of Vatican Radio, is now off the press, headed for the warehouses, and will be available to readers within a few days. In a short, richly illustrated book, you'll find personal background on Pope Francis, his early life, his vision for...

“We must build a civilization of love, or there will be no civilization at all,” said Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, at a Mass for the repose of the souls of those killed in the Marathon bombing. So far, so good. But then the wheels came off. Pointing to sources of the...

Having spent considerable time and energy detailing the program of renewal outlined at the Second Vatican Council (OK, so what sort of renewal did Vatican II prescribe?), I am naturally a little taken aback by those who have responded essentialy as follows: “Whatever. The documents were...

It seems that I spoke too soon. After I poked fun at the Italian politicians who couldn’t put together a new government, they took the first step, selecting a new president. Well, not really. They called back the old president, persuading him to begin serving a new term at the age of...

While Bishop Blaire laments the failure of the US Senate to approve new gun-control regulations, could we inject a dash of political reality into the discussion? The Senate did not vote against gun-control legislation. On the contrary, a majority voted in favor. So why didn’t the measure pass?...