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All Catholic commentary from March 2026
Rejoicing in God’s Grace
Confession removes the guilt of, say, the sin of adultery. But a sincere penitent must pick up the pieces of his life according to his wits, strengthened and guided by God’s continuing actual graces. Forgiveness obliterates guilt; grace strengthens the wounded will.
Rewarding lawbreakers with the right to govern?
Even if we acknowledge that some illegal immigrants ought to be granted legal residency in the U.S., it would be unjust, unfair, and imprudent to reward them by giving their children the right to govern our nation.
Death as a same-day service
The chilling efficiency of Ontario’s death service contrasts sharply with nearly any other government program you might care to name—particularly in the field of medicine.
Into Great Silence (2005) w/ Manny Marquez
Into Great Silence immerses the viewer in the contemplative life of a Carthusian monastery in the French Alps.
England’s most dangerous Catholic
We strive now to have a wider and deeper and decidedly more spiritual collaboration among priests and lay people, without either the confusion of roles which has accompanied the modern rejection of the sacramental foundations of the Church or the partial rejection of the role of the laity in nineteenth-century England. For English ecclesiastical leaders then generally did want lay people to be kept in their subordinate and decidedly non-intellectual, non-managerial place.
Pope Leo XIII against Freemasonry
Pope Leo XIII's 1884 encyclical Humanum Genus is the Church's most comprehensive explanation of why, ever since 1738, she has forbidden Catholics to become Freemasons. Reading the encyclical today, one has the thought that its continued relevance has less to do with the present-day activities of Masonic organizations, and more to do with the fact that Masonic ideas have already come to pervade Western society.
Pope Leo XIII against Freemasonry
Pope Leo XIII's 1884 encyclical Humanum Genus is the Church's most comprehensive explanation of why, ever since 1738, she has forbidden Catholics to become Freemasons. Reading the encyclical today, one has the thought that its continued relevance has less to do with the present-day activities of Masonic organizations, and more to do with the fact that Masonic ideas have already come to pervade Western society.
What are the Church’s top priorities?
Church leaders are serious about abortion, my friend conceded. “But they don’t treat the question with much urgency. Not as much urgency as they’d show if, say, the rectory of a parish burned down. Not even as much as if a house down the street from the parish burned down.
Social Conservatives and the Iran War
What will the Iran War mean for the domestic politics of Catholic causes that are, for better or worse, yoked to the political fortunes of President Trump?
Confronting the Ideology of Inevitability
Dispensationalists teach that Christianity did not fulfill Israel. Rather, biblical promises to ethnic Israel remain to be fulfilled in a future earthly kingdom. Events in Jerusalem are not merely political developments, but rather necessary steps in a prophetic timeline.
Refreshing—and shocking—realism about the marital bond
"In practice, they marry on a trial basis, with the caveat perhaps unspoken but in their hearts: 'Let us make an honest effort—and if things go wrong, we are decent enough to give the other person a new chance.' Who can judge them? They have never seen or learned otherwise."
St. John Henry Newman—The Oxford Sermons | 5. Personal Influence, the Means of Propagating the Truth
"... we shall find it difficult to estimate the moral power which a single individual, trained to practice what he teaches, may acquire in his own circle, in the course of years. While the Scriptures are thrown upon the world, as if the common property of any who choose to appropriate them, he is, in fact, the legitimate interpreter of them, and none other; the Inspired Word being but a dead letter (ordinarily considered), except as transmitted from one mind to another."
5.30 St. Teresa of Avila: Doctor of Prayer
St. Teresa of Avila (1515 - 1582) was the first woman to be named a Doctor of the Church. She was the co-founder (with St. John of the Cross) of the Discalced Carmelites. A reformer, and a mystic, her books on prayer taught the Church to go deeper, and her famous book, Interior Castle, is a spiritual classic.
Our Father, Hail Mary: Two books that go beyond the obvious
A great many of us typically rattle off these prayers without giving them much more than a momentary thought or a fleeting urgency. Even though they nourish our spiritual life and protect us in times of trial, it is only behind the scenes that we tend to grow in our grasp of their incomparable power. Using these rich and spiritually “enjoyable” books is one way to increase our understanding of the salvific context of these great prayers and to associate them with key elements in our own lives.
A just-war examination of conscience
The hackneyed assurance that “all’s fair in love and in war” is very bad advice. Both love affairs and military campaigns can go horribly wrong, either because they never should have been allowed to begin or because they were conducted badly.
Bishop Barron pains the Catholic Left. He heartens the rest of us.
Almost the whole of the hierarchy sees the world as Greydanus sees it. Only Bishop Barron is calling out what the rest of us see.
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