In the rising tide of sexual immorality—or in judging the pitiful state of the world—devout Catholics tend to remember the famous statement by Our Lady of Fatima that “More souls go to hell for sins of the flesh than for any other reason” (July 13, 1917). Ever since that...

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...

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...

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...

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...

St. John Henry Newman was once called “the most dangerous man in England” by the papal chamberlain, Fr. George Talbot, primarily because of the way Newman engaged the laity in supporting and even managing Catholic schools. Indeed, Newman had to struggle in many of his educational...

In 1901, Gilbert Keith Chesterton married Frances Alice Blogg. As the Catholic world knows now, Chesterton was a prolific thinker and writer who operated through genius more than well-organized habits, and Frances (who was also a writer) often served as his secretary and kept him on track. By all...

Gilbert Keith (G. K.) Chesterton published his autobiography in 1936. I have it on my bookshelf, though it has surely been forty or more years since I read it. As an autobiography it is probably more about his ideas than about his life, just as his biographies of St. Francis of Assisi and St....

Catholic apologetics—that is, the careful argumentation for the veracity of the Catholic faith—is an important tool in spreading the Gospel, but by itself it is rarely enough to convert anyone. This frustrating reality presents a challenge that we may not always know how to meet....