On Gaza
This is a loud cry of pain from children whose dignity has been wounded. It cannot and must not leave anyone indifferent. -Pope St. John Paul II …yet how indifferent have we become. The utter tragedy of Gazan families has...
Category: Reflection
Bread into Stones
A new friend, an accomplished writer whom I met for the first time last weekend, gifted me a copy of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom. I couldn’t put it down. While I’ve studied World War II as history,...
New Martyrs in Africa
A very brief post, but all the more significant for that: Last night in Komanda in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an all-night Eucharistic liturgy was interrupted by men armed with guns and machetes, believed to have been members...
The Church’s Mixed Messages to Survivors: From Hostility to Healing
Editor’s Note: This week, John Bellocchio, a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the late Theodore McCarrick as a young teenager in Hackensack, New Jersey, forwarded me an email he received from the Diocese of Metuchen, New Jersey....
From one pope to another
Before diving into my thoughts on Pope Leo XIV and the transition from Francis’s papacy, I think I owe readers a brief explanation — and maybe a small mea culpa. I’ve spent most of the past week working on a...
What to the Migrant is the Fourth of July?
In 2025, 173 years after Frederick Douglass gave his 1852 Independence Day speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” we can update his famous question and ask another question: What to the Migrant is the Fourth of...
And deliver us from evil
Jean de Florette is my favorite film of all time. Two films really, with its powerful sequel Manon des Sources where Jean’s daughter seeks revenge on the villagers who drove the ‘outsider’ to his early death by depriving his farm...
Is Synodality Really Necessary for Unity?
Unity is the central focus of Pope Leo XIV’s vision. That was made obvious in his homily at his inauguration, but it goes back long before that, for he chose as his episcopal motto, In Illo uno unum, which means “In...
Pope Leo XIV: Reconciling Opposition and Proclaiming the Risen Christ
In the speeches and homilies delivered thus far by Pope Leo XIV, certain key words have begun to emerge—words that offer a glimpse into the heart of his pontificate. Chief among them is Resurrection. In his homily on the steps...
Francis Remembered: Tony Magliano, Fr. Tim Kelly, and Mary Kay Bungert
Editor’s note: Following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, the editors of Where Peter Is received many tributes to his life and reflections on his influence from past and current contributors, as well as podcast guests and...
Francis Remembered: Julian Waldner
Editor’s note: Following the death of Pope Francis on April 21, 2025, the editors of Where Peter Is received many tributes to his life and reflections on his influence from past and current contributors, as well as podcast guests and...
Seeing Pope Francis Through the Eyes of Faith
I can say without hesitation that Pope Francis has been the most challenging pontiff of my lifetime. Perhaps that is not saying much as someone who has only been Catholic for the last 22 years. Pope St. John Paul II,...
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