Perspective

Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata by Giotto, c. 1500. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) October 3rd will mark 800 years since the death of St. Francis of Assisi. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed a Jubilee Year of St. Francis from January 10, 2026, to the following January. The fact that the entire Church is invited to enter this Jubilee shows us just how important the witness of St. Francis remains as a man truly conformed to Christ-crucified...

The Speyer Cathedral, Dom Speyer in German. (Photo: Sail over via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0) Speyer is a charming city on the west bank of the Rhine River. Its splendid medieval core is dominated by a magnificent 11th-century cathedral, the resting place of German emperors for three hundred years and one of Europe’s greatest expressions of Romanesque architecture. (For fans of British royalty, the future King Edward VII was introduced to his future wife, Alexandra, in the Dom Speyer in...

(Photo: Lightstock) By Jordan Langdon, LCSW Parent Coach Families of Character There's something about August that feels like another New Year. Maybe it's the stacks of school supplies in every store or the calendar that suddenly fills up overnight. Whatever it is, we all start thinking the same thing: This year is going to be different. We promise ourselves we'll be more organized. Mornings won't be so rushed. Homework won't become a nightly battle. Family dinners will happen more...

(Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) In his June 2 Wall Street Journal column, Jason L. Riley noted a disturbing trend in our American moment: “According to the Department of Labor, 1 in 3 men were neither working nor looking for a job in April.” That sad state of affairs is multi-causal, to be sure. The hard fact, though, as Jason Riley argued and Nicholas Eberstadt demonstrated in his book Men Without Work, “is that the long-term rise in male joblessness doesn’t stem from an...

(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 along to...

Research shows premarital cohabitation is linked to higher divorce rates and lower marital satisfaction. Here's why. (Photo: Lightstock) Dr. Phil is ruining my life. His reels keep showing up on my Facebook feed, upon which I waste far too much time. I have been particularly fascinated by the episodes featuring clearly incompatible engaged couples trying to work out their problems. And I yell, “Just break up! Don’t get married! Run!!!” And then I learn that they have three kids together. And...

The interior of the Coliseum (shrine chapel) at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Martyrs in Auriesville, New York. The shrine rests on the site where the North American Martyrs gave their lives for the faith. (Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons) This summer has led me on an unexpected pilgrimage related to the founding of the United States. I wrote previously about traveling some of the paths taken by Spanish explorers in 1776, including the trek through Colorado and Utah by...

Mary Magdalene's story reminds us that even after we stumble, Christ never stops calling us back to himself. Penitent St. Mary Magdalene and Eight Stories from her Life by Maestro della Maddalena. Tempera and gold on wood panel, 180x91 cm, Date: 1280 – 1285. Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy. (Photo by Elizabeth Zelasko) I was hesitant to watch The Chosen. I grew up with an image of Jesus burned into my mind from watching Jesus of Nazareth, starring Robert Powell. It was a powerful and...

Part Eight: Once the person being accompanied has accepted the Kerygma, the saving news of the Gospel, they need to meet Jesus. Teens encounter Jesus in the Eucharist during the annual Steubenville of the Rockies youth conference in Denver. (Photo by Allison McCullough) Editor's Note: This column is part of a yearlong series on evangelization, breaking down what often feels like a tall order into real, practical, actionable steps towards intentional accompaniment. Part One: A Practical Guide...

A view of the monument to Vladimir the Baptist and the pedestrian bridge in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo: Unsplash) For months now, I have been receiving alarming, early-morning text messages from Major-Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halyč, leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The texts are typically sent after this heroic churchman has spent the entire night in a bomb shelter (as he has done many, many times over the past four and a half years), and they include a digital map of...

(Photo: Lightstock) When my first child was born fifteen years ago, the Internet existed but only on my computer, as smartphones were only beginning to gain popularity. Facebook was around, but not many other social media sites, and they were not yet filled with paid influencers. If I googled a parenting question, most of the information came from mommy bloggers, forums or magazine websites. Very quickly, parenting sites combined information with commerce and began to undermine a mother’s...

(Photo: Unsplash) CRACOW. I usually find the quadrennial FIFA World Cup aggravating for the five reasons enumerated below, plus one other: my students here in the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society are sometimes so obsessed with the competition that it becomes challenging to keep our community of learners focused on the seminar’s deep dive into Catholic social doctrine. But as we have few students this year whose countries even made it to the tourney’s knockout stage, interest is...