Canonizing the Bookends

Pope Francis’ bold decisions to canonize Blessed John XXIII without the normal post-beatification miracle and to link Good Pope John’s canonization ceremony to that of Blessed John Paul II just may help re-orient Catholic thinking about modern Catholic history.

Renewal for Sterilized Couples

Among married men and women who undergo surgical sterilization through a vasectomy or a tubal ligation, it has been estimated that anywhere from 10-20 percent will come to regret the choice.

Easter Truths with Flannery O’Connor

This coming Aug. 3 will mark the golden anniversary of Flannery O’Connor’s “Passover,” to adopt the biblical image John Paul II used to describe the Christian journey through death to eternal life.

Easter Glory in a Roman Jewel Box

One of the many reasons to follow the Lenten station church pilgrimage through Rome is that along that unique itinerary of sanctity, one discovers otherwise-hidden jewels of church architecture and design, created in honor of the early Roman martyrs.

God and Freedom: Lenten Reflection Aid

For the better part of two centuries now, one of the standard tropes in western high culture has held that the-God-of-the-Bible-is-the-enemy-of-human-freedom.

Lent: The Annual Catechumenate

The “annual catechumenate” of Lent prepares us to be missionary disciples who can display the divine mercy because we have known it in our lives.

Joy Is the Hallmark Of a Christian Life

by Effie Caldarola For many parts of the Northern Hemisphere, this has been the winter of our discontent. Snowstorm upon snowstorm blanketed great swaths of the U.S. Ice brought cities in the Southern U.S. to a virtual standstill, while Canada and Alaska experienced disconcerting periods of warmth. The British Isles were hit by massive flooding. […]

Orthodoxy, State And Society

by George Weigel In a conversation about Russian Orthodoxy some dozen years ago, that famous source who can only be quoted off-the-record, the senior Vatican official, said to me, “They only know how to be chaplain to the czar – whoever he is.” Such asperity reflected deep frustration over the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow’s […]