My people need Christ’s Body and Blood...
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone
They canceled Easter. Is Christmas next?” Matthew Hennessey asked this question in the Wall Street Journal on December 8. Lockdown regulations did indeed cancel Christmas gatherings and festivities for many. We bishops have been hearing variations on Hennessey's cry from our people as we approach another pandemic-dominated Lent, barely a month away.

Bishops’ acquiescence makes restrictions on worship possible...
Phil Lawler
The US Supreme Court has issued a very clear ruling that government officials cannot impose special restrictions on religious worship under Covid-emergency rules. If churches are subject to restrictions, the same restrictions must apply to other institutions; otherwise the rules are prima facie indications of discrimination against religion, which is forbidden by the First Amendment...

TikTok is making sea shanties big again [note: skip the first video and jump down to the various ‘Wellerman’ mixes]...

Why are these words missing from our present Lectionary readings?
Fr. Regis Scanlon
Did you know that the present Lectionary Readings for Weekday Masses has some elements of the Word of God missing? Check it out. The traditional translation for Mt. 19:29 based on St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate says “everyone who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children...

5 more hard truths we’ve come to see with 2020 vision...
Msgr. Charles Pope
In the first part of this reflection we reviewed the painful year of 2020, focusing on the social and political ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. This installment examines the Church’s response to the situation. Sadly, we didn’t handle things well...

In 6-3 decision, Supreme Court reinstates FDA’s in-person abortion pill requirements...

Must-read eye-opener: “How I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uighurs”...

Will Catholics ever return to Mass? No, not like before. So here’s what we need to do next...
Eric Sammons
The question that currently hovers over every chancery and rectory in America is this: will they ever come back? Will the Catholic Church in America see a return to pre-2020 numbers, which were already quite dreadful, but weren’t as catastrophic as now? No one knows the answer to that question, but I don’t think Church leaders should have high hopes.

Welcome to “ordinary time”...

Vatican announces Ash Wednesday modifications to expedite distribution of ashes amid pandemic...

“She will come” — The supernatural power of Our Lady’s name against the gates of Hell...

In new interview, Pope Francis talks pandemic, abortion and the need for unity...
Edward Pentin
The world will only emerge from the coronavirus crisis better if people become aware of social injustices, review their lives, and “think about ‘we’ and erase the ‘I’ for a while,” Pope Francis has said in a new interview broadcast in Italy on Sunday evening.

Who stands in the middle of American politics? Often, that’s a religion question...
Terry Mattingly
There were two major stories in American life this week, when it seemed like the world turned in a matter of minutes. The riot at the U.S. Capitol grew out of yet another legal Donald Trump rally, with its familiar mix of hero worship, populist rage and, yes, rhetoric and symbols used by conservative, often Pentecostal, Christians...

Why did Our Lord choose the title “Son of Man?”...

The faith of Christ’s followers is slight. St. John shows the courage our baptism should give us...

At Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis invokes ‘the Immaculate Virgin, Patroness of the United States’ to intercede after Capitol violence ...