Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash By Elizabeth Scalia Editor-at-Large for Word On Fire A recent conversation with a friend I know to be a faithful Catholic left me feeling disturbed. This fellow participates at Mass regularly, volunteers to help out both in his parish and within his community, and receives Holy Communion with reverence and hope. Unlike 70% of Catholics, he understands the teaching about transubstantiation and believes that the Eucharistic Host is the Body a

Jesus was known for speaking directly and remaining close to sinners. He told the adulterous woman, “Go, and from now on do not sin...

Photo: Vatican Media/CNA Certain Catholic media platforms that often function as de facto extensions of Jen Psaki’s White House Press Office have continually urged the U.S. bishops to dodge the issue of pro-abortion Catholic politicians receiving holy communion. Pope Francis, for his part, offered some helpful comments on this contentious matter during a September press conference, held as he was returning to Rome from a visit to Hungary and Slovakia. “Those who are not in th

On Sunday, Oct. 17, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila celebrated the opening liturgy for the diocesan phase of the Synod on Synodality at the...

In the Eucharist, we possess the greatest gift. Within it, Jesus gives us his entire self — body, blood, soul, and divinity — to be consumed under the appearance of bread and wine. But, as the saying goes, with great gifts comes great responsibility. To receive the fruits of this gift, we need to prepare ourselves and then live our lives in accord with it. If we approach the Eucharist unworthily, we not only offend God but also harm ourselves. Even Hollywood can see that on o

Some years ago, a Catholic prep school invited me to address its parents’ association on the future of Catholic education. After describing how a truly Catholic education, stressing human and sacramental formation as well as intellectual competence, equipped young people to meet the challenges of a world that had lost its way, I got into a protracted dust-up during the Q&A period. In my prepared remarks, I had extolled the virtues of small Catholic liberal arts colleges with

As Major League Baseball begins its post-season, let us pause and remember the late, great Bill Freehan of the Detroit Tigers, who died...

Photo by Jonathan Sanchez on Unsplash Do Catholics “believe that human life begins at conception” — a formulation that’s become ubiquitous in recent weeks? Well, yes, in precisely the same sense that Catholics “believe” that the Earth is spherical, not flat; that Venus is the second planet in the solar system; that a water molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom; that blood circulates through the body; that the human heart has four chambers; and so fort

Photo by Steve Halama on Unsplash I spent some time the other day in the ongoing task of sorting through all of Mom’s stuff. So. Much....

It’s a safe bet that “Mother Mary Lange” is not a household name in most U.S. Catholic circles. That unhappy state of affairs may change,...

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash In the summer before the Second Vatican Council opened, Pope John XXIII met with Cardinal Léon-Joseph Suenens in the papal residence at Castel Gandolfo. “I know what my part in the Council will be,” the Pope told the Belgian archbishop. “It will be to suffer.” Pope John was prescient, and not just because the Council’s opening weeks would prove contentious; shortly before Vatican II began its work, the Pope was diagnosed with the painful canc

This past June 25, Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States — usually dubbed the “Vatican’s foreign minister” — told a press conference that he and his colleagues didn’t believe that the Vatican’s speaking out publicly on the massive repression underway in Hong Kong “would make any difference whatever.” I beg to disagree. Vocal Vatican advocacy for such basic human rights as religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of association, an

Rarely do I find myself looking to modern Hollywood for morality tales, either on screen or in headlines. And yet, every once in a while, a film is released that draws on truths incorruptible by CGI and modern mores. The latest film to do so is The Green Knight , in theaters this summer after years of production delays. It’s no coincidence that the film contains questions about virtue that we might consider to be old-fashioned, considering it is based on an Arthurian legend o

In the three decades since the Revolution of 1989, Poland’s many cultural achievements include mastering the craft of creating the 21st-century historical museum. Examples include the Warsaw Uprising Museum in the national capital; Kraków Under Nazi Occupation 1939-1945 , built on the site of Oskar Schindler’s factory; and The Family Home of John Paul II — Papal Museum , in the late pope’s hometown, Wadowice. Each of these exemplary museums combines a traditional, linear ap

Photo by Timon Studler on Unsplash I’m a real estate agent. So I drive, a lot. Because I spend so much time in the car, I try to spend it...

On the Solemnity of Christ the King in 2013, Pope Francis completed the work of the 2012 Synod of Bishops with the apostolic exhortation,...

http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/711955 Given everything else going on these days, it may seem strange that a 129-year-old encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, founding father of modern Catholic social doctrine, should have become a shuttlecock in the volleys exchanged by conservative American legal theorists and commentators. But there it is. And it’s imperative that the record about Leo XIII’s political theory be clarified before Professor Adrian Vermeule of the Harva

CRACOW. Thanks to the pandemic, it’s been two years since I was last in Cracow, where for three decades I’ve done extensive research and taught great students while forming friendships with many remarkable people. It was wonderful to be back in one of the world’s greatest cities, and soon after I arrived in late June, I took a long walk to see what had changed. The first major difference I noticed was that the plaza in front of the central railway station (named for my late f

In an article first posted at Commonweal and republished on July 7 in La Croix International , Professor John Thiel of Fairfield University, while criticizing the U.S. bishops’ decision to prepare a teaching document on Eucharistic coherence and integrity in the Church, performed the not-inconsiderable feat of striking out four times (swinging). The first whiff: “ In the judgment of the bishops, Biden’s sin seems to be that, as a Catholic politician, he has not taken a publ

NORTHGLENN, CO: Father Joseph Hearty celebrates a traditional Latin Mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Northglenn, CO. (Photo by Brandon Young) Let me begin by defining my location in the Liturgy Wars. I am a Novus Ordo man. I don’t agree that the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope Pius V in 1570 entombed the Roman Rite in ecclesiastical amber, such that it forever remains (as one traditionalist friend recently put it) “the most authentic expression of the Roman Chu