George Weigel

On March 25, the New York Times published a now thoroughly discredited front-page story suggesting that Joseph Ratzinger, while prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had willfully impeded sanctions against a clerical sexual abuser in Milwaukee who had preyed on the deaf children in his care… . Continue Reading »

The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking. In the United States alone, there are reportedly some 39 million victims of childhood sexual abuse… . Continue Reading »

In June 2003, Pope John Paul II published his last notable contribution to the Catholic Church’s reflection on the culture of political modernity, the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Ecclesia in Europa… . Continue Reading »

The Making of a Catholic President: Kennedy vs. Nixon 1960 by Shaun A. Casey Oxford University Press, 261 pages, $27.95 Strange as it may seem to those of a certain vintage, the dramatic presidential election that pitted John F. Kennedy against Richard M. Nixon is as far in the national rearview . . . . Continue Reading »

How to capture the essence of Richard John Neuhaus and his impact on others? Perhaps numbers help. As anyone who knew Richard even slightly would recognize, this is somewhat counterintuitive. When Jim Nuechterlein handed over the editorship of this journal to Jody Bottum, he had one word of advice . . . . Continue Reading »

President Obama’s first choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services was former South Dakota senator Tom Daschle¯a pro-abortion Catholic Democrat. President Obama’s second choice for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is Kansas Gov. . . . . Continue Reading »

The conventional Beltway wisdom on the 2008 presidential election was summed up, unsurprisingly, by David Broder in a Washington Post column published on November 2, 2008, forty-eight hours before the vote. Barack Obama, Broder wrote, had demonstrated an “impressive” capacity to . . . . Continue Reading »

In May 2006, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) made public its decision to “invite” Fr. Marcial Maciel, founder of the religious order the Legion of Christ and the lay movement Regnum Christi, to “a reserved life of penitence and prayer, relinquishing any form of . . . . Continue Reading »

The Faithful: A History of Catholics in America by James M. O’Toole Harvard University Press, 384 pages, $27.95 The ideological pretentiousness often found in the fever swamps of contemporary social history is easily dismissed as so much Marxist exhaust. A more modest approach to reading . . . . Continue Reading »

Seeking ideas for presents this year, we asked several of our well-read friends and contributors for recommendations of a few wise, or fun, or disturbing books that every First Things reader should know”limited only by the request that the lists not include the Bible, Shakespeare, or volumes by . . . . Continue Reading »