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(Photo: Unsplash) A 2025 YouGov poll revealed some interesting factoids about Americans’ reading habits — or lack thereof. 40% of us didn’t read a book last year. About a quarter of the country read one to four books in 2025, and 13% clocked in at between five and nine books in all formats (print, electronic, audio). 19% of us did 82% of America’s book reading. So let’s up our game. Herewith, some suggestions for your own reading pleasure this summer, which I hope you’ll pass

In a historic first for his ministry, the Denver archbishop offered the invocation before the mayor’s annual address, calling for wisdom, service and care for the city's most vulnerable. Screenshot from the City of Denver's livestream of Denver Archbishop James Golka praying the invocation during Mayor Mike Johnston's State of the City address on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. (Courtesy photo) Before Denver Mayor Mike Johnston took to the podium to deliver his third State of the Cit

Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States on September 17, 1787, by Howard Chandler Christy, c. 1940. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) As we mark the national semiquincentennial on July 4, we might well reflect on Benjamin Franklin’s answer to Elizabeth Willing Powel, when the elderly sage left the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and the Philadelphia matron demanded, “Well, Dr. Franklin, what have we got, a republic, or a monarchy?” To which

The United States Supreme Court is currently made up of nine justices. Front row: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., and Justices Samuel A. Alito and Elena Kagan. Back row: Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. (Photo: Fred Schilling, Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) Article III of the Constitution, which establishes the Supreme Court, is the shortest of the three articles th

Jimmy Lai in 2019. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) At his May summit in Beijing, President Trump made an effort to convince Chinese leader Xi Jinping to release Jimmy Lai from his imprisonment in Hong Kong. Jimmy, whom I am honored to call a friend, is a 78-year-old diabetic who has been in solitary confinement some seven hundred days longer than the United States was engaged in World War II, and is now serving a twenty-year sentence for threatening Chinese natio

From religious freedom and parental rights to homelessness and human trafficking, the Colorado Catholic Conference reflects on a consequential year at the Capitol. The 2026 legislative session at the Colorado State Capitol considered several important topics for Catholics. (Photo: Pixabay) The 2026 Legislative Session kicked off on January 14. Lawmakers exceeded their allowable threshold of submitted bills (500 total bills for 100 total members), continuing a recent years-lon

The federal law, supported by Governor Jared Polis, will help generate new scholarship opportunities for K-12 students across the state. Governor Jared Polis, the first Democratic governor to opt into the new federal tax credit scholarship law, joined Seeds of Hope and students from Holy Family High School in Broomfield and Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic STEM School in Wheat Ridge at a celebratory event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. (Photo courtesy of Seeds of Ho

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, have taken issue with the pope’s Gospel teaching on peace. Vice President of the United States J. D. Vance speaking with attendees at the 2025 AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons) The U.S. bishops’ chair for doctrine issued a clarification on April 15 reaffirming that Catholic just war theory sets strict moral limits on the

Archbishop James R. Golka preaches during his March 25 Installation Mass. (Photo by Rachel Moore/Denver Catholic) In response to a Sunday evening social media post by President Donald J. Trump criticizing Pope Leo XIV, Denver Archbishop James R. Golka has joined his brother bishops in responding. His brief statement is printed in full below. "I join my brother bishops in stating clearly that the recent remarks directed at Pope Leo by President Trump are not acceptable. Such l

The Holy Father’s global challenge comes amid growing tensions in the Middle East and beyond. Pope Leo XIV greets the crowd after delivering his Easter blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican April 5, 2026. (Photo: CNS/Lola Gomez) In the face of increasing tensions worldwide, Pope Leo XIV has called the faithful to join him in a prayer vigil for peace on Saturday, April 11. An Easter Challenge In his

Denver Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodríguez and Father Luke Barder, pastor of St. Dominic Parish in Denver, were among the featured guests at a Regis University half-day gathering focusing on faith, immigration policy and civic engagement. (Photo courtesy of Regis University) Regis University brought together students, faculty, clergy and community members on March 27 for a half-day gathering examining the intersection of Catholic faith, immigration policy and civic engagement an

United States Supreme Court Building Courtesy: WIX Editor’s Note: On March 31, 2026, the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling striking down Colorado’s ban on "so-called" conversion therapy for minors. The following statement is from the Colorado Catholic Conference, which represents the collective public policy voice of the Catholic bishops of Colorado. Colorado Catholic Conference Statement on the United States Supreme Court victory in Chiles v. Salazar The Col

(Photo: Unsplash) After months of dedicated effort, three ballot initiatives backed by the Catholic Church in Colorado are heading to the Colorado Secretary of State’s office for review and eventual inclusion in the November 2026 ballot. Proposition 109, “The Protect Women and Girls’ Sports Act,” garnered over 170,000 signatures and aims to designate sports as male, female or co-ed, thereby protecting women and girls’ private spaces. Proposition 110, “The Protect Children fro

(Photo: Denver Catholic design) Volunteering in the Pro-Life movement in the 1990s, I remember praying for the overturning of Roe v. Wade as if it would immediately end the abortion problem in the United States. As a high schooler, it seemed like a simple enough solution. Roe v. Wade caused the mess, so getting rid of it should take care of things. But now, after Dobbs v. Jackson, what has actually changed in the last three and a half years? Even though abortion is now res

What Catholics should know — and pray for — as lawmakers return to the Capitol (Photo: Unsplash) As the Colorado State Legislature opens its 2026 session, lawmakers return to the Capitol amid heightened political tension, fiscal uncertainty and a growing sense of division across the aisle. For Catholics, this moment invites both awareness and prayer, as decisions made in the coming months will shape policies that affect human life, families and communities throughout the stat

(Photo: Unsplash) What would the collapse of civilization look like? We might immediately think of cutoff utilities, disruptions in the supply chain, violence in the streets and the lack of functional government. While it’s true these might serve as external indicators of a functioning modern society, they do not constitute the essence of civilization. A civilized person doesn’t just live in the city (the civitas that gives civilization its name) but conforms to an ideal of c

Christ sent us to make disciples of all nations — including our own communities. Voting is one of the simplest ways to help the Gospel take root. (Photo: Lightstock) 5:43 p.m. Mr. Benedict (my dog) and I were in the middle of our evening walk when it hit me: it was election day. I had just over an hour to fill out my ballot and drop it off. 5:44 p.m. I kicked my pace up to a jog. Mr. Benny gnawed at the leash and growled the entire way home (he doesn’t like it when we run). 5

St. Michael's Square in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo: Unsplash) Prior to the “Revolution of Dignity” that began on the Maidan, Kyiv’s Independence Square, in late 2013 and eventually gave birth to the country that has amazed the world with its courage, resilience, and ingenuity since the Russian invasion of February 2022, ecumenical dialogue and interreligious cooperation were not prominent features of the Ukrainian cultural landscape. The Maidan experience changed all that. An ecum

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus' in 2021. (Photo: Marcel Badykshin/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0) When Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ was head of the Russian Orthodox Church’s external relations department, he would occasionally come to Washington, where the Librarian of Congress, James Billington, a distinguished historian of Russian culture, would host a small dinner for him. I was a guest on one such occasion, and the impression Kirill left that night rem

(Photo: Unsplash) The partisan division that runs deep in America has recently taken a violent turn. Political affiliations manifest...