Exploring Catholic History In Pennsylvania, N.Y., & N.J.

The Catholic history of the Mid-Atlantic offers a particularly revealing case. In New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, Catholic life took shape unevenly, shaped as much by law and political culture as by migration and missionary effort.

In Thanksgiving for The Gift of Baptism

Over these 75 years, I have experienced the vocation of sanctity in so many ways, each of which has left its imprint on my soul and my spiritual life.

‘Ecclesiacide,’ Then and Now

Pardon the Latin-rooted neologism, but if “patricide” works for murdering your father and “regicide” for taking out a king, why not “ecclesiacide” for trying to kill an entire Church?

What the WSJ Didn’t Print

I had a couple of lengthy and, I thought, productive e-mail exchanges with one of the authors of a recent Wall Street Journal Saturday Essay” before its publication. I reprise those exchanges here.

Via Crucis, 2026: A Map of Hope

It’s good to remember this Holy Week that we are empowered to get up and continue the journey because Christ got up from his three falls.

Three Great Takeaway Themes From Lent

The entire purpose of Lent is to prepare us for the glory of Easter and its revelation of the destiny that God first intended for humanity “in the beginning”: the destiny that Christ made possible after the Fall through the paschal mystery of his passion, death, resurrection, and ascension. As the Church concludes its Lenten journey, perhaps we might ponder three great themes that shape the spiritual rhythms of this noble penitential season.