Search or Browse Commentary
All Catholic commentary from September 2025
The Church and the Jews, 3: What Is “Authentic Judaism”?
Just as Protestants have come up with novel, alternate forms of worship because of their rejection of the Mass, Rabbinic Judaism had to cope with its inability to enact the sacrifices of either the Mosaic Law or the Law of Love. While the Jews cannot follow the spirit of the Law without Christ, without the Temple they cannot even follow the letter. So God scattered the proud in their conceit.
Praying to Avoid Stupidities
We’re smart, but not as smart as we think we are. When we recognize our limitations before God and others, we paradoxically discover our freedom.
Triumph of the Heart is a film worthy of its subject, St. Maximilian Kolbe
James and Thomas review an outstanding and very intense new film about St. Maximilian Kolbe, directed and written by Anthony D'Ambrosio. Triumph of the Heart is set mostly in the starvation cell in Auschwitz as Kolbe and his companions try to find a way to die with hope and dignity. Don't miss it, in theaters Sept. 12.
Father Martin meets the Pope: a scandal, but not a surprise
We don’t know exactly how Father Martin’s private audience with the Pontiff was arranged. But it is easy to imagine that if he sought the audience, dozens of influential prelates would have supported his request, and few if any would have recommended against it.
Who are you? Who do others say that you are?
There is a growing feeling that we are adrift, that our lives are essentially meaningless, and that any sort of confident repose within our own being is actually impossible. Without this in the background, it is difficult to explain the modern emphasis on both identifying ourselves with our most felt attachments or “drives” and insisting that others affirm these attachments or drives as constituting a personal identity to be honored and celebrated.
The Church and the Jews: Recovering Tradition, w/ Gideon Lazar
The Church’s traditional teaching on the Jewish people has been largely forgotten, with many people under the false impression that Vatican II changed Catholic teaching. Gideon Lazar, theologian and Jewish convert to Catholicism, joins the podcast to discuss some widely misunderstood and controversial points about the relationship between the Church and the Jews.
Father Mankowski’s advice
Fresh from his installation or consecration Mass, the new bishop arrives at the chancery with, "Hi, everybody!" He's orthodox. He loves the Church. What does he do next? What are the priorities? Assume he has a gun.
The Church and the Jews, 4: Estranged Brothers
"For not all who are of Israel are Israel, nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but 'It is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.' This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants."
On the Catholic youth revival and Mother Teresa
Catholicism wasn’t just felt tip banners and lousy preaching and the same two or three terrible folk songs over and over again. Not when we had Mother Teresa.
Provocative Catholic and Islamic Parallels
I gave the customary blessing and departed peacefully through the crowd, like the Israelites passing through the Red Sea.
RKF Jr’s other crusade: moral standards for the organ-transplant industry
The scandal in Kentucky drew attention to the fact that along with the questionable diagnosis of “brain death,” transplant teams were also using the term “circulatory death” to justify a declaration of death in cases when the patient still appeared, by ordinary standards, to be alive.
On using the Church and her popes
I have never had a private audience with a pope. But while in Rome many years ago, my wife and I attended a public audience with Pope St. Paul VI. I have prayed for the Holy Father daily since that time…and I have also been convinced since that time that prayer is a more appropriate response to a papal audience, whether public or private, than is any self-serving post-audience “spin”.
5.19 St. Bonaventure: The Seraphic Doctor
St. Bonaventure (1221-1274) was the friend and colleague of St. Thomas Aquinas. What Aquinas was to the Dominicans, Bonaventure was to the Franciscans. St. Bonaventure is known as the second founder of the Franciscans because he was important for the organization of the order, and for bringing forth and expanding upon St. Francis’ spirituality.
Christian Raab, OSB—In Search of the Masculine Genius
"When attention to the theological meaning of femininity is not accompanied by reflection on masculinity, men are left without a sense of the existential and sacramental significance of their own sex."
Pope Leo on leading the sheep to safety
For newly ordained bishops, Pope Leo has stressed hardships related to ecclesial belonging and practice, passion and courage for the Gospel, and ethical challenges for pastors who wish to be guides. This is not the same emphasis that was so characteristic of Pope Francis, who focused on shepherds who accompany their sheep to the point of acquiring their smell.
Why the ‘good bishops’ keep disappointing the faithful
Unfortunately, despite the undeniable excitement that St. John Paul II generated, and the emergence of a new generation of enthusiastic “JPII Catholics,” that restoration had never materialized—at least not in the typical American parish—by the time Hitchcock was writing. Nor would it materialize in the years that followed, during the pontificate of Benedict XVI.
The other tragedy in Charlie Kirk’s assassination
Charlie went from what seemed a libertarian-only philosophy to being a committed Evangelical and an advocate of Christian conservatism. He was only 31 years old. Had he lived, might he also have become Catholic?
“Imagine” in St. Peter’s Square
If “Imagine” really is played in St. Peter’s Square tomorrow, it will be a repeat of what Kolbe saw a century ago – but this time, voluntarily hosted by the Vatican.
Roadmaps of Redemption and Salvation
Hilaire Belloc suggests American Capitalism is rooted in Calvinism. But as Belloc observes, the religion of Calvin disappeared, and capitalistic institutions remained!
The double scandal of the ‘DEI means God’ essay
If that is what DEI means—if DEI refers to the Providential action of the Almighty—then there was no point in writing this essay. The Trump administration cannot stop God’s work.
Want more commentary? Visit the Archives.
