I’ve been writing op-ed columns for the Catholic press since 1979. In its present form, “The Catholic Difference,” I began this column in...

“For the first time in the history of Iraq, Mosul is now empty of Christians,” Patriarch Louis Sako said after the July 19 noon deadline...

In recent years, as scholars have explored Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy with greater access to primary-source documents, something...

Picking the most beautiful parish, hiring the most talented musicians, the freshest flowers, bridesmaid dresses that reflect the color of...

The post-Vatican II Lectionary for Mass has many fine features, one of which is the continuous reading of the Acts of the Apostles during...

As the world marked the silver anniversary of the Polish elections of June 1989, which eventually brought to power the first...

When I visited the Little Sisters of the Poor last month, I saw elderly men and women being treated with compassion, respect and charity...

Hereditary monarchy is not exactly a growth industry in the 21st century. But those who imagine monarchy to be useless in a democratic...

Real readers read books all year round. But the convention of the “summer reading list” has become so thoroughly engrained in our culture...

The Office of Readings for the solemnity of the Ascension offers a lovely excerpt from one of St. Augustine’s sermons “de Ascensione...

“Cat’s in the Cradle,” a 1970s hit song by Harry Chapin, begins with a father trying to find time for his newborn son: “There were planes...

His Holiness, Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Danilov Monastery 115191 Moscow RUSSIA Your Holiness: Grace and peace in our...

Father Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household, has described the moment when the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles...

A June 2014 article in the  New England Journal of Medicine  (NEJM), written by researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and...

As that familiar parody of bad fiction has it, “it was a dark and stormy night” – March 21, 2000, to be precise – when I made my way from...

The first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan and the jump sequence in the second episode of Band of Brothers are vivid reminders of the...

You may have never thought about it, but when the Holy Family was forced to flee into Egypt to escape Herod’s persecution, they...

“I have asked you. They have asked you, and she, my mother, has asked you. Will you refuse to do this for me, to take care of them, to...

It’s commencement season and tens of thousands of students are graduating from inner-city Catholic elementary schools. As decades of...

If you really want to be satisfied in life, ask God, “What are you calling me to do?” We often talk about “vocations” in the Catholic...