Cardinal Burke and Steve Bannon share an ominous clash-of-civilizations ideology. They fear progressive movements. Their “meeting of hearts” is nothing to celebrate.
One of the most important contributions Pope Francis is making to the church concerns his efforts to exercise the kind of pastoral magisterium Pope John hoped for.
It is worth stopping to reflect on what Francis has described as “the very foundation of the church’s life,” now, while the Year of Mercy remains fresh in our minds.
One of the biggest problems confronting Catholics engaged in the public square is our failure to develop a body of political thought relevant to this modern moment.
The USCCB meeting offers another opportunity to ditch a style of culture-war Catholicism that has failed to persuade even many of the faithful in the pews.
Denying the good faith of those we disagree with is tempting. But demonization is often used to deflect hard issues by denying the other side has the right to speak.
Francis has made it clear he wants to renew the John Paul II Institute by developing the guidelines in "Amoris Laetitia," which traditionalists have criticized.
If the hollowness of the 1990s opened up a space for one kind of communitarian moment, perhaps the bewilderment of today is the occasion for another, different kind.
The provenance of the term “Benedict Option” actually offers at least some hope that it might actually fashion a meeting ground amid U.S. culture wars.
In their respective books, Jason Moore and Jedediah Purdy both reckon with ecological disaster under capitalism. But John Ruskin knew something they don't.
Sex isn't an enjoyable activity that we can detach from things that really matter. Sex isn’t like telling a joke, drinking good wine, or watching a basketball game.
By signing one sentence asking for an exemption, the Little Sisters are not formally cooperating. They are materially cooperating only in a minor and remote sense.
With its command of reverberant silences, its conveyance of past horror and ongoing pain, 'The Innocents' does what all good movies do: it lingers with you.
Canada’s long-standing ban on physician-assisted death is over. Though Canada has a predilection for polite and civil exchange, was the debate heated enough?
Online media in the wake of tragedy could be doing something good. It may be a modern means of activating an ancient genre: a particular subset of human sorrow.
The tensions within Orthodoxy are partly theological. But there is also a more worldly clash of interests, including the rivalry between Constantinople and Moscow.
Waiting while depressed is like being anywhere but the present, pulled toward the past and future by anxiety. Silent waiting tries to do something different.
Religious liberty has a damaged “brand” these days, and Catholic institutions have played a role. The nation's largest church now needs to lower the temperature.
The most debilitating conceptual limitation in Whitmarsh’s story is an unawareness of what “theism” is—or, how “classical theism" differs from polytheistic myth.
Early stories of Jews, Christians, and Muslims; the politics of celibacy and marriage; reflections from Cardinal Kasper; afterlife and wealth in early Christianity.
Historian Frank Oakley rejects the idea that that Greece and Rome were secular. He insists that the “seedbed" for individual rights lies in the Latin Middle Ages.
Cardinals grapple with Francis's unclear "but-also" logic; Bishops hesitate to implement changes pope called for three years ago; What will happen to Vatican Radio?
When Pope Francis issued a formal “bull” instituting the current Year of Mercy, he included in its appendix a lengthy informal interview with an Italian journalist.
Cathleen Kaveny raises concerns about divisive behavior in religious discourse and critiques efforts by scholars to explain the resulting polarization.
Acknowledging the significance of Populorum progressio and the second confrerence of CELAM is essential to understanding the post-Vatican II Latin-American church
