Archbishop Arthur Roche, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship, recently sent the world’s bishops instructions regulating local usage of the Traditional Latin Mass. Those instructions were intended to implement Pope Francis’s 2021 motu proprio , Traditionis Custodes (Guardians of the Tradition), which strictly limited the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal. Traditionis Custodes presented itself as a defense of the authority and integri

Every time in history has its trials, but the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic is one that stands apart because its impact has been so...

Photo by Wojciech Pysz | Wikipedia Despite being immersed for over 30 years in the study of modern Polish history, I must confess that I’d never heard of the heroic Ulma family until recently. I’ll get to the circumstances of my being introduced to these 20th-century martyrs in a moment. But first, consider their story. Józef Ulma was a prominent personality in Markowa, a village in southeastern Poland. Born in 1900, he had a more extensive education than many of his neighbor

Photo by Max Kukurudziak on Unsplash There have been vast improvements in the techniques and technology of filmmaking since 1961, when Stanley Kramer made Judgment at Nuremberg . But it’s difficult to imagine any cast today improving on the extraordinary performances of Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Maximilian Schell, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Widmark, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift in that gripping courtroom drama, which explores the meaning of justice in Germany’s — and

Detail from the cover of "Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World" by Tara Isabella Burton. (Photo courtesy of Word on Fire)...

Organizers and a limited number of participants marched in the 48th annual March for Life in Washington D.C. on Jan. 29, 2021, in a scaled down event due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Claudette Jerez/CNA) The annual March for Life in Washington began in 1974 — and it’s hard to think of a more admirable or consistent public witness to the dignity of the human person being given for so many years by so many people of all races, religions, and social classes. The March

Paradiso, Gustave Dore, 1868. As I write this, we are on the eve of the first anniversary of my mother’s death. The last in a year of...

Photo by Photo Nic on Unsplash How is wine related to charity? Although we may think of consuming wine as something simply pleasant and enjoyable, Jesus used it as an image of his sacrifice. He asked his disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?” (Mt 20:22). This cup of his passion took shape during the Last Supper, when we offered his own blood to establish the new covenant. He then hinted that he would continue to share this cup after his Passion: “I sha

A common misconception holds that early “modernity” invented the “individual”: the idea that everyone is a someone with a unique identity independent of family, tribe, racial group, or nation. And from that idea of individuality, it’s argued, came the most distinctive civilizational accomplishments of the West. Those accomplishments (it’s further argued) are now threatened by progressive and conservative forms of collectivism that threaten individual prerogative and initiativ

While history is always full of surprises, including happy ones, I must confess that I’m not full of Pentecostal joy as I consider the next 12 months. World politics are likely to be grim. The Russian bear will continue his aggression in Ukraine, perhaps kinetically. China will intensify its pressure on Taiwan after the Winter Olympics (during which the communist regime’s massive human rights violations will not receive nearly as much media attention as the BLM movement did i

(Photo: Adobe Stock) Have you ever googled “percentage of people who dread the holidays”? It’s kind of fascinating. The numbers range,...

People from across the U.S. gathered outside the Supreme Court for the oral arguments of the Dobbs vs Jackson abortion case. (Photo by Katie Yoder/CNA) I first met Erika Bachiochi — then Erika Schubert — in July 1998, when she was my student in the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society in Cracow. She had graduated from Middlebury College two years before and was doing a master’s program in theology at Boston College, which she completed in 1999. Erika received her law

Nativity, Fra Angelico, ca. 1395-1455. The world does not think like God. If we were to plan how to stage the most important moment in history, it might involve a great military victory or a stunning natural occurrence that would catch everyone’s attention. How did God choreograph the moment that fundamentally changed human life? With a babe, lying hidden a manger, surrounded by barn animals. This miraculous birth, which went unnoticed by most of the world, signaled a new beg

ROME. A massive, 16-volume Lives of the Saints , first published between 1872 and 1877, informs me that, here in the Eternal City, the feast of Christmas first became a celebration distinct from the ancient feast of the Epiphany in the mid-fourth century — and that St. John Chrysostom, one of the four doctors of the Church who support the cathedra in Bernini’s bronze masterpiece, The Altar of the Chair , in the Vatican Basilica, “used his utmost endeavor” to promote the cele

In the Garden of Eden, Satan convinced Adam and Eve to doubt God’s trustworthiness. He enticed them by telling them a lie, that they...

When I began working with some regularity in Rome 30 years ago, my elders and betters taught me that no one paid much attention to the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano . The exception to that rule was the daily section with the charming title Nostre Informazioni (“Our Informations”), in which papal audiences, episcopal appointments, and other tidbits of interest to those obsessed with Who’s Up and Who’s Down are recorded. (The most famous of these nuggets was the brie

Pope Benedict XVI. Photo by Thomas Serafin/CNA This February will mark nine years since the historic renunciation of Pope Benedict XVI. Joseph Ratzinger would have gone down in history as a great theologian without his rise to the chair of St. Peter, although through his papal ministry he became a teacher of the world. The power of Benedict’s writing speaks for itself, though his life also witnesses to the power of truth and service. Peter Seewald, who edited many interview b

Photo by Zhang Kaiyv on Unsplash In July 2016, as we were sitting on the fantail of the Swiss sidewheeler Rhone while she chugged across Lake Geneva, my host pointed out the city of Lausanne, where a massive, glass-bedecked curvilinear building was shimmering in the summer sun. “Isn’t that the headquarters of the International Olympic Committee?” I asked. When my friend replied in the affirmative, I said, “I thought I smelled it.” That rank odor — the stench of greed overpowe

Photo by Keith Allison on Wikicommons via Flickr So Aaron Rodgers is in trouble. Back in August, he was asked by reporters if he had...

Photo by Mel Poole on Unsplash Some suggestions for Christmas giving, in the form of books that amuse, inspire, educate or all-of-the-above: Prison Journal, Volume 3 – The High Court Frees an Innocent Man , by Cardinal George Pell (Ignatius Press). The vindication of Cardinal George Pell by Australia’s High Court in April 2020 was an unalloyed joy amidst Plague Time. With this third volume, Ignatius Press completes the publication of Cardinal Pell’s remarkable prison diary, w