The Gospel passage from this past Sunday, Matthew 16:13–20, told the famous story of Jesus asking the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds in turn by giving him a new name and a mission: “You are Peter,...
Last fall, Pope Leo published his first major teaching document, the Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te. This document has primarily been presented as a moral exhortation for Christians to better serve the poor. While this isn’t untrue, I think Pope Leo’s inaugural teaching letter is much more. In Dilexi Te, Pope Leo presents us...
There are political regimes that are not content to regulate people’s actions according to law. They want to govern their words, their convictions, and their consciences as well: to determine what may be said, what must be left unsaid, and who has the right to speak at all. The story of Maximilian Kolbe...
The Gospel passage from this past Sunday, Matthew 16:13–20, told the famous story of Jesus asking the apostles, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon responded, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus responds in turn by giving him a new name and a mission: “You are Peter,...
Last fall, Pope Leo published his first major teaching document, the Apostolic Exhortation, Dilexi Te. This document has primarily been presented as a moral exhortation for Christians to better serve the poor. While this isn’t untrue, I think Pope Leo’s inaugural teaching letter is much more. In Dilexi Te, Pope Leo presents us...
There are political regimes that are not content to regulate people’s actions according to law. They want to govern their words, their convictions, and their consciences as well: to determine what may be said, what must be left unsaid, and who has the right to speak at all. The story of Maximilian Kolbe...
The Eucharist is where Catholics should discover most profoundly what it means to belong to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. Every Sunday, Catholics across the world gather around the same altar. They may hear Scripture proclaimed in different languages, sing different hymns, and worship according to different cultural traditions, yet they...
Nearly three months have passed since the publication of the synod’s final report from Study Group 9, titled “Theological Criteria and Synodal Methodologies for Shared Discernment of Emerging Doctrinal, Pastoral, and Ethical Issues.”[1] Though receiving much press due to its discussion of homosexuality, the document in fact proposes something more fundamental to the...
In the summer of 1889, a reporter for the New York Sun went looking for a story in the Italian quarter and found one he did not expect. “During the past few weeks,” he wrote, “dark-featured women, in the garb of Sisters of Charity, have been going through the Italian quarters in the...
There is No Vocations Crisis All across the country parishes are merging, Masses are split between different times at multiple sites, vocations directors are expressing alarm, bishops are restructuring diocesan ministries, and there are thousands of parishes without a resident priest.1 Every fact in that list is true, but the story that we tell...
“The God who loves us all, unconditionally.” From the first words Pope Leo XIV spoke as pope. Before any doctrine, before any policy, before a single question about who belongs and who doesn’t. Simply that. Unconditionally. I was born a nothing, then baptized a Catholic. Only because I happened to be born in...
Paragraph 89 is perhaps my favorite passage from Pope Leo’s encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas. It’s at the end of a short section titled “An examen for the Church,” where Pope Leo makes the case that the Church must live out its own social doctrine “within its own structures” in order to be faithful to...
Father Joseph Thermadom, CSC, is India’s first deaf Catholic priest, the third in Asia, and only the 26th in the world. Born in Thrissur, Kerala, India, and raised in Mumbai, he spent more than a decade in seminary formation in the United States and across India. He was ordained on May 2, 2024,...
“We must live in the city to serve all the peoples in it, not just our own tribe.” – Tim Keller This August, Pope Leo XIV is asking us to join him in praying for evangelization in cities. This request reflects the difficulty of sharing the Gospel in densely populated areas, where neighbors...
On May 19, 1977, Salvadoran security forces occupied the town of Aguilares, expelled the Jesuits who were ministering there, and took over the parish church — turning it into a barracks. They opened fire on the tabernacle and scattered the consecrated hosts across the floor. Soon afterward, Archbishop Óscar Romero tried to enter...
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