The Blessing of the Wheat in the Artois by Jules Breton, c. 1857. (Photo: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons) We often repeat that the...

In its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church ( Lumen Gentium ), the Second Vatican Council firmly applied the brakes to “ultramontanism” —...

The Healing of the Cripple of Bethesda by Pieter Aertsen, c. 1575. (Photo: Public Domain/Wikimedia Commons) Pope Francis’s image of the...

“He was hungry.” Luke tells us of Jesus’ struggle with the devil in the desert, during which he fasted for 40 days. At the end of it, as...

When they were working together some years ago at the Ukrainian Catholic University — the only Catholic institution of higher learning in...

St. Paul VI says the Mass versus populum at All Saints Parish (Rome) on March 7, 1965. By Father Felix P. Medina-Algaba Pastor of Queen...

A procession of cardinals enters St. Peter's in Rome, opening the Second Vatican Council. Original painting by Franklin McMahon, c. 1962....

Leo G. Bonacci passed away on January 21, 2023. He was two months shy of his 100th birthday. There is so much I could say about my...

“All of man’s misfortune comes from one thing, which is not knowing how to sit quietly in a room.” Blaise Pascal, who offers this...

The corner of Connecticut Avenue and M Street in downtown Washington is occasionally patrolled by young men and women seeking signatures...

Back in the day, kiddie-Catholics learned that the Church had four “marks:” the Church is one, holy, catholic (as in “universal”), and...

Until the 1960s, Catholics worshipped ad orientem , with priest and congregation facing the East during Mass. Originally Christians...

On the night of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s funeral, Cardinal George Pell hosted a dinner in his apartment for a group of like-minded...

On Tuesday, January 3, when Cardinal George Pell and I went to pay our respects to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, lying in state in St....

Photo by Hu Chen on Unsplash A wonderful friend of ours from 40 Days for Life Croatia shared some thoughts recently. “When you look at...

(Photo: Wikipedia/François-Régis Salefran/CC BY-SA 4.0) It would be easy to start 2023 with a healthy dose of cynicism. As we start the...

(Photo: Unsplash) The beginning of my friendship with Bob Andrews, who died this past December 2, would probably astonish contemporary...

(Photo: Jüppsche / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0) I first met Joseph Ratzinger when I was 15 years old. No, not in person, but I was...

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain) The Joseph Ratzinger I knew for 35 years — first as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine...

Photo by Jimmy Conover on Unsplash Amidst the sundry aggravations of contemporary life in these United States, few have such a cringe-inducing effect on me as a ubiquitous neologism that appeared eight times in a November column in the Wall Street Journal . The article in question speculated on the future contract possibilities of the wondrous Aaron Judge, whose 2022 campaign with the Yankees may have been the greatest offensive season in baseball history. But there is offens