Russell Ford produced some outstanding work—fine essays on apologetics and evangelization—while he was a long-term prisoner in an Alabama jail. Now finally released after 25 years behind bars, he has redoubled his efforts to promote evangelization. For all this we should be...

Fr. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly needs your support. At age 67, having suffered two strokes and now with a brain tumor, this courageous Catholic priest languishes in a Vietnamese prison for his advocacy of a peaceful transition to democratic rule for his country. An organization called Freedom Now,...

When I was very young, sometime in my grammar-school years, I had the habit of going with my father to the annual Town Meeting. I found it fascinating to watch as the people settled the business of our town. I believed then, and still believe today, that a New England town meeting is one of the...

Yesterday I remarked on the apparent inability of some Vatican reporters to distinguish between an exorcism and a blessing. Only later did I come across this priceless headline in the English tabloid, The Sun: Exorcism? Pope Francis caught on video performing strange ritual on fan Exorcism...

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. Downloaded from our ebook sales site, the ZIP file contains all...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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?...

Just six weeks ago, some “experts” on Vatican affairs were predicting that confusion was bound to arise in the Catholic world when we had two living Popes. Well, let me ask you: Do you feel confused? Today we mark the 8th anniversary of the election of Benedict XVI as Supreme Pontiff. Many...

Remember back during the conclave, when secular commentators were scoffing at the “ridiculous,” antiquated, inefficient way the Catholic Church chooses a Pope? Well, we’ve had our new Pope for a month now, and things seem to be working out just fine, thank you. Meanwhile the thoroughly modern...

We get lots of mail here at CatholicCulture.org. For example, today I received an email from somebody named Nathaniel Wenger, the purpose of which was to advocate a new form of government, far superior to democracy, which Nate modestly calls Wengerocracy. Um...OK. But I also received this...

Yesterday while I was trying to draw the key lesson from the Gosnell trial, two other columnists were demonstrating that if this horrible story makes people stop and think, the facile public acceptance of unrestricted-abortion-on-demand will end. James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal...

It isn’t light reading, but some of us glance through each issue of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly. In the latest, E. Christian Brugger has an intriguing article entitled “Free Choice, Self-Determination and Contraceptive Acts”. Brugger holds the J. Francis...

On this feast of St. Stanislaus I can’t help wondering whether the great Polish bishop and martyr was “comfortable” confronting King Boleslaus. The foes of St. Stanislaus said that the bishop was playing politics when he excommunicated the king. That argument has a very contemporary flavor,...

Vatican Insider says that Italian priests are reporting more people coming to Confession since the election of Pope Francis—including many people who have been away from the sacrament for a long time. American priests have told me the same thing, and it seems to me the lines have been a bit...

“Reform of the Roman Curia” was the cry of the day—among journalists, at least—in the days before the conclave that elected Pope Francis. So now with the new Pope settling into his work, commentators are speculating on the sort of changes that the Holy Father might...

You may have noticed that during the last 10 days before Easter, I posted virtually no editorial commentary on this site. A few friends wrote to ask whether I was ill, or on vacation. Far from it. I was working, hammer and tongs, on a special project:  A Call to Serve: Pope Francis and...

Let's see if I understand this correctly: You say you can't respect the authority of Pope Francis because, by not moving quickly into the apostolic palace, he's denigrating the authority of the papacy? So it's the apartments that make the difference?  St. Peter didn't live in the papal...

The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) has issued a statement praising diocesan bishops who have responded energetically to the sex-abuse crisis, and voicing loyalty to the teachings of the Catholic Church. The SNAP statement said: April Fool! (No such statement has ever been...