As mediated by the journalists, the story of the Second Vatican Council was framed as a battle between traditionalists centered in the Roman Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucracy, and a core of progressive bishops, mostly from northern Europe. It was a facile poli

Lilacs, pummeled in pounding rain, their sweetness sweeter for the pain, release redemptive suffering scent as they are pummeled, broken, bent.

When Yale first bowed to the spirit of meritocracy and began admitting large numbers of students from outside the New England upper class, it set in motion a nationwide arms race among high-achieving high school students. After fifty years of escalating compe

Among the pipes and pulleys, sacks and seeds, there is a necklace made of crimson beads. Great care was taken that it catch the eye of plain-clad fernandinas passing by the Sunday market stalls and sundry shops where needs and wants diverge. A woman stops. S

A half century ago, John Courtney Murray’s response to Pope John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris raised issues that, as Paul Miller’s essay makes plain, remain at the center of the foreign-policy debate. The pope’s “acute sense of the basic need of the new

Believing in the Eucharist, My faith affirmed within the Host, I welcome—with an upturned wrist, Believing in the Eucharist— These elements, to take amidst The Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Believing in the Eucharist, My faith affirmed within the Host.

Paul Miller’s essay is a plea for Americans to persevere in a military undertaking in Afghanistan that began in 2001. I might be moved by an argument that appealed to our national honor. Many people in that country have risked much, personally, to cooperate w

In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire by Tom Holland Doubleday, 526 pages, $29.95 Islam is widely understood by both Western and Islamic scholars to have substantially engaged with the intellectual tradition

A state is not a church. A state exists not to redeem humankind or to do God’s work but to provide for the security and well-being of the people who reside within its boundaries. This defines the primary, indeed the overriding, moral obligation of those who g

Last Tuesday’s March for Marriage contained many of the standard elements for a socially conservative protest march. There were young families pushing strollers, some Catholic parishes that rented buses, youthful nuns praying. In short, it was easy to view as

Michael Voris’ “FBI (Faith Based Investigation) into Homosexuality,” a 94-minute video he recently released on his website ChurchMilitant.tv, was not easy for me to watch. It is harder for me to review. I’m tempted to rip into its bloody meat and leave behind

She was called a “messenger of the love of Christ,” awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and beatified by the Holy See. But for most people, she is simply Mother Teresa, one of the most admired women of modern times. Born as Agnes Bojaxhiu in Macedonia in 1910,

Stopping by my local Barnes & Noble store several years ago, I counted ninety-two Amish romance novels. My local Christian bookstore had sixty-six. More formal research for my book about Amish romance fiction confirmed what my bookstore visits first sugge

Benedict knelt in prayer before the Shroud of Turin, then spoke on the mystery of Holy Saturday, of which he saw the Shroud to be an icon. The meaning of Holy Saturday is perhaps especially dear to Benedict—between having been born and baptized on Holy Saturda

For Judah, the exile to Babylon is a national death. Once Judah had a king, but now he’s a prisoner in Babylon. Once Judah possessed a land, but now it’s depopulated. Once there was a temple in Jerusalem, but Nebuchadnezzar roared through and left charred rui

In “Courting Cowardice,” published this week in the New York Times, Maureen Dowd attacks the natural law argument that since marriage is for procreation, homosexual couples are de facto incapable of being married. She does this by offering several counterexam

This morning, Pope Francis presided over his first pontifical Mass inside St. Peter’s Basilica. Previous Masses have been said outdoors beneath the basilica’s sagrato. The Chrism Mass was concelebrated with the cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and

When Martin Luther began work on his Small Catechism in 1528, he intended to include a section on what he called the “theology of the cross,” a theologia crucis, in contrast to a “theology of glory,” theologia gloriae. Luther thought this contrast so impor

The first day of oral arguments before the Supreme Court on same-sex marriage were watched very carefully by many Americans. Up to this point, one would be hard-pressed to find any instance of any notable personage who is not known as a traditional marriage p