The Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (often referenced by its Latin title, Gaudium et Spes ) is typically regarded as the most “progressive” of the 16 documents of Vatican II: the conciliar text that bespoke a new Catholic embrace of modernity while aligning the Church with liberal democratic political forces throughout the world. Like every other conciliar document, however, the Pastoral Constitution only comes into clear fo

Featured image: The Annunciation, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo , c. 1660 Where would we be without our mothers? We wouldn’t be! Father Gregory Cleveland, OMV, shares a beautiful quote from Cardinal Mindszenty on the importance of motherhood: “The most important person on earth is a mother. She cannot claim the honor of having built Notre Dame Cathedral. She need not. She has built something more magnificent than any cathedral—a dwelling for an immortal soul, the tiny perfection

I claim no expertise in climate science. I do claim a certain competence in detecting spin in the media; for I’m a card-carrying member of that clan, as I’ve committed print journalism for more than 40 years and worked in television for over 20. Thus credentialed, I rise to note that serious spin has dominated media coverage of climate change for a long time now. There are, to be sure, exceptions to this rule. Since Hurricane Katrina, though, it’s generally been all-hysteria-

Photo by Jake Blucker on Unsplash Last month was my Mom’s 89th birthday. And the three-month anniversary of her death. I have written...

Unfortunately forgotten in most U.S. Catholic circles today, Cardinal Albert Gregory Meyer, archbishop of Milwaukee from 1953 to 1958 and archbishop of Chicago from 1958 to 1965, was one of the country’s leading churchmen in the mid-20th century. A biblical scholar and a deeply holy man, Meyer played a crucial role in the first three periods of the Second Vatican Council. On November 19, 1962, for example, he made an important intervention at a critical moment in the council’

CORDOBA, SPAIN - MAY 27, 2015: The Holy Family painting in church Convento de Capuchinos (Iglesia Santo Anchel) by unknown artis of 18. cent. Joseph — son of David, husband of Mary, the humble builder, and adoptive father of the Messiah — stands as one of the greatest saints in the life of the Church. Throughout history, we, as members of God’s family, have realized more and more the crucial role that Joseph plays as “the wise steward the Lord has placed over his household” (

During his 1977 rookie year with the Baltimore Orioles, future Hall of Famer Eddie Murray got a piece of advice from veteran Lee May: If you’ve got talent, May told the 21-year-old slugger, fame can’t help you, but the odds are it’ll ruin you. Murray followed May’s sage counsel and avoided the limelight. Father Hans Küng, the mediagenic Swiss Catholic writer who died at age 93 on April 6, didn’t. Therein lies a sad tale. Hans Küng certainly had talent. His doctoral dissertat

On April 14, 2021 America Magazine , as part of its ongoing “Conversations” in America Media , published an article I wrote entitled:...

It seems like a paradox to say we can learn from St. Joseph, a man who does not have a single word attributed to him in the Scriptures,...

(Photo: Unsplash) At my first Mass as a priest, and at Masses I have offered since, I have prayed quietly one of two prayers offered by...

The Paschal Triduum this year seemed like a return from exile: Holy Thursday’s Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, in church; Good Friday’s Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion, in church ; Saturday evening’s Easter Vigil, in church – what a blessing. Thanking God, I could only be aware of those for whom the exile continues, whether because of the pandemic or, like my friend Jimmy Lai, because of unjust imprisonment for the cause of Christ and freedom in Hong Kong. May their

Ten years ago last month, the Synod of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church took a striking decision: it elected its youngest member, 40-year old Bishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, as leader of the largest of the eastern Catholic Churches, a choice confirmed by Pope Benedict XVI. In the ensuing decade, what appeared bold and even risky now seems brilliant and providential. For Major-Archbishop Shevchuk has become one of the world’s most dynamic Catholic leaders under exceptionally ch

It’s Week 7 of Encounter the Risen Jesus! Visit archden.org/easter2021 to watch the reflection and follow along with the prayer guide...

“Are you saved?” This is something you might hear after the doorbell rings. “What does that even mean?” you might wonder, as you think of what to say in response. The door-to-door evangelist would tell you that Jesus died to forgive your sins and if you believe the truth of that statement, you will be saved. That is an important part of salvation but by no means the full account. To be saved is not simply to have your sins forgiven or to be given a ticket to heaven, because G

In the last edition of the Denver Catholic magazine, I began a three-part series on our story as Catholic Christians, the story of our...

Let me adapt to recent circumstances a thought-experiment theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar proposed decades ago: Imagine that a friend contracts a severe case of COVID-19 and medicine can do no more for him. The doctors inform his widowed mother and us, so we gather with her for the final scene in the drama of this life. The ventilator is removed; the man grows weaker from lack of breath and whispers his final farewells. We hear the death-rattle. Then he expires and takes on

Image by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash First of all, I want to thank you all for the tremendous outpouring of support we have received in...

There is no need to belabor the awfulness of the year of lockdowns, shutdowns, and other downers that began in mid-March 2020. Among the failures that will bear serious scrutiny going forward are those of inept local governments. If Americans can fly an SUV-sized robotic rover to a planet 292 million miles away, and then soft-land it on a dime, why can’t we distribute vaccines rapidly? (Perhaps the vaccination program should be led by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, one age

Featured Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash On February 25, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives could have addressed any number of pressing issues. The nation was in its 11th month of a pandemic that had already caused enormous economic and social dislocation. Schools remained closed as evidence mounted that online learning was disserving vulnerable poor children. Civil unrest continued in cities whose local governments refused to maintain public order and protect small

As the names Ambrose, Augustine, Athanasius, and John Chrysostom suggest, the middle centuries of the first millennium, the era of the Church Fathers, were the golden age of the Catholic episcopate. The Catholic Church recognizes 35 men and women as exemplary teachers; 14 of them – 40 percent of the entire roster of the “Doctors of the Church” – were bishops who lived in that epoch. Their’s were not tranquil times. But even as these brave shepherds battled heresies within the