In his May 10th address to the College of Cardinals, Pope Leo explained one of the reasons he chose the name “Leo”: There are different reasons for this, but mainly because Pope Leo XIII in his historic encyclical Rerum Novarum addressed the social question in the context of the...

As I recently mentioned in an email to colleagues, I know that I have the liturgical sensibilities of a mouse. The Liturgy has never been, for me, something that I thought I was supposed to enjoy. When I consider the laws of the Church, I notice that one of those laws is to attend Mass on Sundays...

As a great many people have observed, under Pope Francis, the concept of synodality morphed into a constant and universal input process, with apparently everybody welcome. That approach was excessively institutionalized and bureaucratized, remarkably costly, and largely a waste of time as it...

Pope Leo offered a striking message to the Knights of Malta on the Solemnity of Saint John the Baptist, who is the Order’s patron. The Pope expressed what is already becoming a hallmark of his pontificate, that is, an emphasis on the central and foundational duty of the followers of Christ...

In commenting on the Durbin-award controversy, when Pope Leo XIV made comparative remarks about related contemporary moral positions, he put it this way: Someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. Someone who says I’m against...

Predictably, Cardinal Blase Cupich has defended his decision to honor Senator Richard Durbin despite criticism by Bishop Thomas Paprocki. Phil Lawler and I both wrote about this yesterday at about the same time, so I decided to wait another day to post my thoughts. Phil emphasized...

I’ve been wanting to get back to Phil Lawler’s commentary on Vatican II’s relationship to Catholic decline, which he posted on July 28th. This desire is fueled by the perennial need to avoid misunderstanding. For example, no reasonable observer of Catholicism in the 1960s can...

Sometimes when I awaken in a complaining mood, I think of a remarkable Scriptural explanation of how God deals with those whom He has strongly called to know and serve him, as compared with those to whom He has not revealed Himself so fully. You will find this in the second book of Maccabees when...

It is surprisingly hard to know what to wish for in a new pope. Mostly, I suppose, we tend to wish for a successor to St. Peter who shares our own spiritual priorities. But in view of our own weaknesses, it is fair for others to ask how well that is likely to work out. One of the larger and more...

I have been discussing how to draw others to Christ and the Church, but when it comes to forming people as committed Catholics who will devote themselves to doing God’s will throughout their lives, nothing beats the family. It never fails to astonish me how frequently Catholics tend to...