After I saw Cabrini, the new biopic of the great missionary saint who served the immigrant poor in New York, I perused some other Catholic reviews of the film, and something struck me as odd. The reviewers seemed to admit, tacitly or explicitly, what I observed in my own viewing: the film contains...

Today dozens of media outlets are reporting that Pope Francis did not deliver a homily at Palm Sunday Mass. That’s true, but no particularly remarkable. Many priests choose to skip the homily on Palm Sunday, after the lengthy reading of the Passion. What is remarkable is that the Pope did not...

As my colleague Jeff Mirus has pointed out, there are strong points in Dignitas Infinita. But another friend, Robert Royal, has observed that with this document from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), as with so many formal statements during this pontificate, what is good is not...

In a recent interview, Alejandro Monteverde, the director of the new movie Cabrini, defends his work against those who have criticized it for portraying St. Frances Xavier Cabrini as a strong woman and social worker with little to no reference to God, prayer, her religious vocation, or the...

Rome’s rumor mills are buzzing. According to multiple sources, a new Vatican document is being prepared, which would impose still tighter restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM). If approved in its current form, our informants tell us, the document would bar...

My grandmother died yesterday at the age of 96. There is no single person to whom I owe a greater debt for imparting to me my Catholic faith than her. I have explained why in numerous Facebook posts over the years and in a Catholic Herald piece commemorating the centennial of Our Lady of...

It is very easy to transition into the Easter Season with a certain sense of relief that we can cut back on the extra devotions characteristic of Lent. But obviously it is good to make some Lenten observances permanent, and this applies especially to good habits we might develop in meditation and...

This week, with the publication of his new book, Pope Francis has added one important link to the chain of evidence regarding the fight against Vatican corruption. In April 2012, Pope Benedict created a special commission of three senior cardinals (Herranz, Tomko, and DeGiorgi) to investigate...

I was pleasantly surprised by the latest declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity. I say this because of the tendency of the current pontificate to place greater emphasis on the aspects of human dignity the modern Western world...

Forgive me for returning to a question that I have asked once before—and only a few weeks ago, at that. But frankly I am dumbfounded, and wonder why the same question is not on the lips of all believing Catholics. Why has Pope Francis not celebrated Mass in public for well over a year?...