(Photo: Unsplash) A 2025 YouGov poll revealed some interesting factoids about Americans’ reading habits — or lack thereof. 40% of us didn’t read a book last year. About a quarter of the country read one to four books in 2025, and 13% clocked in at between five and nine books in all formats (print, electronic, audio). 19% of us did 82% of America’s book reading. So let’s up our game. Herewith, some suggestions for your own reading pleasure this summer, which I hope you’ll pass

Research shows premarital cohabitation is linked to higher divorce rates and lower marital satisfaction. Here's why. (Photo: Lightstock) Dr. Phil is ruining my life. His reels keep showing up on my Facebook feed, upon which I waste far too much time. I have been particularly fascinated by the episodes featuring clearly incompatible engaged couples trying to work out their problems. And I yell, “Just break up! Don’t get married! Run!!!” And then I learn that they have three ki

The interior of the Coliseum (shrine chapel) at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. The shrine rests on the site where the North American Martyrs gave their lives for the faith. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) This summer has led me on an unexpected pilgrimage related to the founding of the United States. I wrote previously about traveling some of the paths taken by Spanish explorers in 1776, including the trek through Colorado a

Mary Magdalene's story reminds us that even after we stumble, Christ never stops calling us back to himself. Penitent St. Mary Magdalene and Eight Stories from her Life by Maestro della Maddalena. Tempera and gold on wood panel, 180x91 cm, Date: 1280 – 1285. Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy. (Photo by Elizabeth Zelasko) I was hesitant to watch The Chosen. I grew up with an image of Jesus burned into my mind from watching Jesus of Nazareth, starring Robert Powell. It w

Part Eight: Once the person being accompanied has accepted the Kerygma, the saving news of the Gospel, they need to meet Jesus. Teens encounter Jesus in the Eucharist during the annual Steubenville of the Rockies youth conference in Denver. (Photo by Allison McCullough) Editor's Note: This column is part of a yearlong series on evangelization, breaking down what often feels like a tall order into real, practical, actionable steps towards intentional accompaniment. Part One: A

A view of the monument to Vladimir the Baptist and the pedestrian bridge in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo: Unsplash) For months now, I have been receiving alarming, early-morning text messages from Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halyč, leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The texts are typically sent after this heroic churchman has spent the entire night in a bomb shelter (as he has done many, many times over the past four and a half years), and they include a

(Photo: Lightstock) When my first child was born fifteen years ago, the Internet existed but only on my computer, as smartphones were only beginning to gain popularity. Facebook was around, but not many other social media sites, and they were not yet filled with paid influencers. If I googled a parenting question, most of the information came from mommy bloggers, forums or magazine websites. Very quickly, parenting sites combined information with commerce and began to undermi

(Photo: Unsplash) CRACOW. I usually find the quadrennial FIFA World Cup aggravating for the five reasons enumerated below, plus one other: my students here in the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society are sometimes so obsessed with the competition that it becomes challenging to keep our community of learners focused on the seminar’s deep dive into Catholic social doctrine. But as we have few students this year whose countries even made it to the tourney’s knockout stag

Pope Leo XIV smiles as he greets visitors and pilgrims from the popemobile while riding around St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican before his weekly general audience on May 20, 2026. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez) St. Augustine uses the image of two cities to define the central conflict that runs throughout history between the self-love that constitutes the City of Man and the divine love that forms the City of God. Unsurprisingly, the first Augustinian Pope, Leo XIV, shapes Magnifica

Robert Louis Wilken. (Photo: Fair Use) Robert Louis Wilken — radical Christian disciple, devoted husband and father, distinguished patristics scholar, elegant writer, serious baseball guy — died on June 6, a few months short of age 90. Curiously enough, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this longtime friend and colleague is a pop-quiz Q&A I heard years ago in Charlottesville, Virginia, where Robert was an adornment of Mr. Jefferson’s university for many years

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, by Howard Chandler Christy, c. 1940. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) As we mark the national semiquincentennial on July 4, we might well reflect on Benjamin Franklin’s answer to Elizabeth Willing Powel, when the elderly sage left the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the Philadelphia matron demanded, “Well, Dr. Franklin, what have we got, a republic, or a monarchy?” To which

A call to renewal rooted in history and mission (Photo: Lightstock, created with AI) By Forest Barnette In the span of the memory of the Church, 250 years is just a drop. While the United States is right to swell with pride at the accomplishments of the Founding Fathers, Catholics claim a heritage at least as old as Abraham. Despite the youth of America and Colorado, God has nevertheless moved in big ways through the Centennial State to encourage and renew his people. The Jun

Jeanne d'Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1879. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) If it is possible to fall in love with someone you have never met, I fell in love with Jules Bastien-Lepage as a young art student in New York City. There have been few painters, in my opinion, that have been able to bring the natural world into sharper focus without being a photo realist painter. I have never been drawn to photo-realistic paintings. We have cameras to capture such thin

What the Church celebrates — and challenges — in the American story (Photo: Lightstock, created with AI) By Austin Mernagh Theology and Social Studies Teacher Arrupe Jesuit High School, Denver Growing up in the Midwestern United States, I have fond memories as a kid on the 4th of July. Fireworks going off on every street, family and friends gathering around and enjoying homemade dishes and barbecue. The one thing that stood out the most was the presence everyone gave each o

As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, the gift of religious freedom remains as relevant, radical and necessary as ever. (Photo: Lightstock) Even before the founding of the United States, America was known as a land of liberty, particularly for religious minorities fleeing persecution. This included Catholics, who founded one of the original thirteen colonies. Unlike for other religious groups, however, the promise of religious freedom often fell short for C

Part Seven: After hearing the Kerygma, the saving news of the Gospel, and making a decision to follow Christ, the person being accompanied needs to hear what it means to follow Jesus. (Photo: Lightstock) Editor's Note: This column is part of a yearlong series on evangelization, breaking down what often feels like a tall order into real, practical, actionable steps towards intentional accompaniment. Part One: A Practical Guide for Everyday Catholics Part Two: Be A Disciple Fir

The United States Supreme Court is currently made up of nine justices. Front row: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. Back row: Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Photo: Fred Schilling, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the Supreme Court, is the shortest of the three articles th

(Photo: Lightstock) While praying through the second letter of St. Paul to Timothy one morning, the words in the chapter seemed to leap off the page and strike me in the heart. As someone who writes and reads online, I feel ever more strongly the need for wisdom and discernment in what I consume and say. The digital world is the new Wild West: a place of bots and trolls, but also an opportunity to evangelize. You and I might be one of the only Catholic voices others hear (or

Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X, in 1981. (Photo: Antonisse, Marcel / Anefo, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 nl) The Holy See has declared that, if the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) proceeds with the ordination of bishops in July without a papal mandate, those involved in these illicit ordinations are automatically (latae sententiae) excommunicated — that is, excommunicated by their own acts. One may, indeed one should, hope that it does not

As the United States marks 250 years, the story of Franciscan missionary Francisco Garcés reveals a Catholic legacy that helped shape the American Southwest. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) After writing about Escalante and Dominguez’s exploration of Colorado, I unexpectedly found myself driving Route 66 across Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona (as the road celebrates its own centennial). Providentially, I was already reading an account of a great missionary and m