By Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. Pope Francis has made three seriously misleading statements recently. On September 13th, prior to leaving Singapore, he spoke to an interreligious group of young people at a Catholic junior college. He stated: "All religions are a path to arrive at God." He elaborated: "I will use an analogy, they are like diffe…

By Michael Pakaluk A question: when the Prefect of Rome in 258 demanded that St. Lawrence hand over the treasures of the Church (see here), had the saint thought about his reply already, or did he improvise it on the spot? Did he live his life regularly thinking that "poor persons are the Church's treasures" or were those treasures, as it were, not…

By Casey Chalk "Because of the greatness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods of other countries as freely as our own," declared Pericles in his famous funeral oration to honor the Athenian dead and the glorious city for which they died. Many paeans could also be sung of the great cities of Christian…

By Brad Miner It was originally called "The City of Little Men," when the Irish-born Fr. Edward J. Flanagan founded the refuge for orphaned and troubled boys in 1917 at 25th and Dodge Streets in Omaha. It became Boys Town a few years later when Fr. Flanagan purchased a farm - a necessary investment since the number of boys under his care had grown …

By John M. Grondelski But first a note from Robert Royal: Dr. Grondelski reminds us today that there are specifically Catholic ways of thinking - and acting - in the public realm that are always relevant, especially in unsettled times like ours as we approach a presidential election. Another chance to learn about such subjects will begin this Thurs…

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia The young G. K. Chesterton once wrote a bit of doggerel that captures his love of the Christ-child and of childhood in general: I would say to all parents Do you take things equally How do you know that you are not In the place of Joseph and Mary. Of course, those two things are profoundly related. Childhood wasn't valued unti…

By Vincent J. Cannato Growing up in the New York metro area in the 1970s and early 1980s, the work of art I heard my parents discuss most often was Michelangelo's Pietà. The famous sculpture, which resides inside St. Peter's in Rome, features a beatific and serene Mary seated with the body of the crucified Jesus sprawled across her lap, evoking the…

By David Warren "Out of the One, Many," is my motto for today. Note that it is the opposite of "E Pluribus Unum," which, I trust, some Americans may still recognize. From my hero Nirad Chaudhuri (1897-1999) I learned that the former is the Hindu view: "Eko ham vahu syam" (plus accents). I approve of both mottoes, even though I am not a multicultura…

By Stephen P. White But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, September 19th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the Asian journey of Pope Francis, his comments about America's…

By Randall Smith But first a note: Be sure to tune in tomorrow - Thursday, September 19th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Father Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the Asian journey of Pope Francis, his comments about America'…

By Father Thomas G. Weinandy, OFM, Cap. Today, September 17th, the Franciscan orders of sisters, brothers, and priests celebrate the 800th anniversary of St. Francis receiving the stigmata - the five wounds of Christ in his hands, feet, and side. The first account of this event is found in Thomas of Celano's First Life of St. Francis. While he was …

By Robert Royal A sometimes-tart critic of this site - a self-described atheist who reads this page regularly for reasons unknown - came to the defense of Pope Francis' recent remarks in Singapore about all religions being a path to God (in the original Italian, Tutte le religioni sono un cammino per arrivare a Dio): "Even as an atheist I have to f…

By Father Raymond J. de Souza Bespoke clothing is better than off-the-rack, but often rather too expensive. Bespoke liturgical seasons are free and permit the flourishing of a greater liturgical piety. And they can be observed or ignored according to taste. What is a bespoke season? We might consider 15th September - feast of Our Lady of Sorrows - …

By Father Brian A. Graebe In his autobiography, Winston Churchill recounts an episode from his early school days when he had to decline the Latin noun mensa. When a puzzled Churchill asked why the vocative case is translated, "O table," the schoolmaster responded matter-of-factly that that's how one would address a table. After objecting that he do…

By Michael Pakaluk A commonplace book is a book in which a reader, over his lifetime, and especially in his student years, writes down excerpts from his reading which strike him as so important, and so well expressed, that he wants to treasure them and live by them. It should be a physical book, not a computer file. He should insist on a high stand…

By Anthony Esolen "And I shall go in unto the altar of God." "To God, who gives joy to my youth." So, for eighty years, the priest and the altar boy at the church of my childhood prepared for Mass in prayer apart from the congregation. Anyone who had once served at the altar, and anyone who had a missal handy, as most people did, would be aware tha…

By Francis X. Maier My parents grew up in the Depression Era. College was financially out of reach. The focus of their everyday lives was survival. As a result, they made education a priority for their children, and I got plenty of it: seven years of undergrad, graduate, and post-grad studies. But the best education I ever received was in a Jesuit …

By Fr. Benedict Kiely On June 4, 1940, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (currently undergoing character assassination from the poorly educated Right) addressed the House of Commons. He had supposed, just a week before, that he would have to announce the most serious loss of Allied Forces in the war so far, and, perhaps, the imminent Ger…

By Robert Royal Among the many abrupt twists and turns in our online-driven, unstable social life, one of the oddest is the recent career of "Cultural Christianity" (hereafter "CC"). CC refers to the merely passive - and precarious - residue of Christianity in many people's lives, not a fully living faith. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was often denig…

By Rev. Peter M.J. Stravinskas We know relatively little of Our Lady's origins; most of our information comes from the Protoevangelium of St. James, which contains many pious legends and traditions, including information about her parents and infancy. That work informs us that her parents' names were Anne and Joachim. We do know, for a fact, howeve…

By Brad Miner Dennis Quaid and Penelope Ann Miller imitate Ronald and Nancy Reagan in a new movie about the life of America's 40th president. As director Sean McNamara and screenwriter Howard Klausner would have us believe, that life was mostly about anti-Communism. No one will doubt that Mr. Reagan was opposed to Communism, but one might have hope…

By David Warren "Well done, good and faithful servant," as we said to ourselves in thinking (here) of Saint Bruno today, that courageous enemy of decadence and filth, and of the Carthusian Order he founded. "Euge!" I've been trying to catch up with our social degeneration with the help of Jonathan Haidt, the only social psychologist who is, apparen…

By Stephen P. White But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, September 5th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Father Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the ongoing Asian journey of Pope Francis, as well as other d…

By David G Bonagura, Jr. We hear it said ad nauseam: "Our society is so polarized." "Polar," or "related to the geographic pole," is more dramatic than "divided." To speak of things as polar opposites separates factions or ideas as far as possible from one another. Standard education these days assumes that Europe, beginning with the Reformation, b…

By Randall Smith At Mass the other day, I heard that passage in the Gospel of Matthew where Jesus says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood…