GALATIANS 1:15-18 is not your basic witness-to-the-Resurrection text. Yet St. Paul’s mini-spiritual autobiography helps us understand just how radically the experience of the Risen Lord changed the first disciples’ religious worldview, and why an evangelical imperative was built into that experience.
Author: George Weigel
The ‘Tyranny of the Possible’
Ten years after his death, Pope St. John Paul II looms even larger than he did a decade ago. What seems most memorable was that he refused to accommodate to the “tyranny of the possible.”
The Indomitable and Effective Cardinal Pell
Shortly after Cardinal George Pell was named Archbishop of Melbourne, he instituted several reforms at the archdiocesan seminary, including daily Mass and the daily celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours, both of which had fallen by the wayside in the preceding years.
A Mission of Loving With Integrity
The World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia this September should be more than a vast Catholic “gathering of the clans” around Pope Francis – and so should the months between now and then.
Keeping Catholic Schools Catholic
Will the Church be allowed to staff its schools with teachers who teach and live what the Catholic Church believes, or will the state try to coerce Catholic schools to employ teaching staff according to other criteria?
No Fighting God
Some months after my son-in-law, Rob Susil, died, a longtime friend asked me in a gentle but point-blank way, “Are you still fighting God?”
World Christianity by the Numbers
THE ANNUAL “STATUS of Global Christianity” survey published by the International Bulletin of Missionary Research is a cornucopia of numbers: some are encouraging; others are discouraging; many of them are important for grasping the nature of this particular moment in Christian history. This year’s survey works from a baseline of 1900 A.D., and makes projections […]
Ukraine: Confusion, Disinformation
TWO RECENT interviews in the National Catholic Register suggest that there is considerable confusion about what’s what in Ukraine. Those confusions reflect the success of the extraordinary Russian disinformation campaign that’s been underway for the past 15 months. They may also touch on the delicate, but important question of Russia’s attempts to buy influence in […]
Observing Lent, Day by Day
Lent is a journey – a journey to Calvary with the Lord and an opportunity to reflect on how well we’ve each picked up the cross daily (as instructed in Luke 9:23) and followed Him.
Unique Challenges for Vatican Diplomacy
The Vatican engages in bilateral diplomacy to secure the freedom of the Catholic Church to be itself in the countries with which the Holy See has, or wishes to have, diplomatic relations.