Imagine if the people of the Soviet Union had never heard of communism. The ideology that dominates our lives has, for most of us, no name. Mention it in conversation and you’ll be rewarded with a shrug. Even if your listeners have heard the term before, they will struggle to define it. Neoliberalism: do you Read more
Seven years have passed since the death, on April 7, 2009, of Fr Stanley Jaki OSB, a great fighter for Catholic truth and a world-ranking authority on science and religion. I had the privilege of working with him for five years. He was the author of more than 50 books and over 400 articles. He was Read more
In 1988, Ronald Reagan went to the newly restored Danilov Monastery in Moscow. Founded in the 13th century, the monastery had been restored not by the generosity of the Soviet state but by, as Reagan noted, “35 million believers” who had given “personal contributions.” “Our people feel it keenly when religious freedom is denied to Read more
Ines San Martin (Crux): Holy Father, what we’ve read… The first question is about the trip. This trip is happening just after an accord between the European Union and Turkey has come about … Do you think this is a political question in order save time? This morning, you met with the presidential candidate, Bernie Read more
TEL AVIV — Eliashib, the quartermaster of the remote desert fortress, received his instructions in writing — notes inscribed in ink on pottery asking for provisions to be sent to forces in the ancient kingdom of Judah. The requests for wine, flour and oil read like mundane, if ancient, shopping lists. But a new analysis Read more
On Friday, Pope Francis released a 256-page document called “Amoris Laetitia,” or “The Joy of Love.” In it, he calls for the Catholic Church to approach issues of sex, marriage, family planning and divorce with less emphasis on dogmatic law and more emphasis on individual conscience. While the post-synodal apostolic exhortation doesn’t directly alter any Read more
Fr Hugh Allen, abbot of the Norbertines in Chelmsford, once told me that he had a devotion not to St John Vianney, the “Curé d’Ars”, but to the curé’s successor. The saint ate very little, spent most of his day hearing confessions, slept a few hours each night and prayed much. Imagine how the next Read more
Good Shepherd Sr. Monique Tarabeh’s prayers have an urgency to them. Tarabeh grew up in Damascus, Syria, and her family still lives there despite the civil war made possible by the rise of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS. The war has raged for five years, killing hundreds of thousands of people and Read more
There are many things about Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta that could be called heroic – her tireless service to the world’s most rejected and her courageous witness to millions of what it is to live the Gospel, just to name a couple. But the priest charged with overseeing her path to sainthood said that Read more
Sister Kate calls herself an “accidental nun.” At age 16, she tried marijuana for the first time inside a friend’s car during a cold Wisconsin winter. But that was when she was a “good mid-western Catholic girl,” and the drug did nothing for her. Years later, after her first marriage had come and gone, after she Read more