The art of speaking truth: Lessons from the prophet Nathan...
David Mills
He was speaking truth to power and speaking it to a powerful man with a record of killing people who got in his way. But he didn’t walk into the room and condemn the man for his sins, perhaps because the powerful man would have reacted and not repented. He told the man a story about a rich man who stole from a poor man, and I’m guessing he knew the powerful man well enough that he expected the story to enrage him...

Church lockdown closures caused widespread mental and physical harm, says survey...
Zelda Caldwell
The closure of Catholic churches during the 2020 lockdown contributed to widespread mental and physical suffering, according to the results of a new study. The survey carried out by the Catholic Union found 62 per cent of people reporting that their mental and physical wellbeing were adversely effected directly as a result of not being able to go to church.

Straighten the Path: A Reflection on the Second Sunday of Advent...
Scott Hahn
Our God is coming. The time of exile—the long separation of humankind from God due to sin—is about to end. This is the good news proclaimed in today’s liturgy. Isaiah in today’s First Reading promises Israel’s future release and return from captivity and exile. But as today’s Gospel shows, Israel’s historic deliverance was meant to herald an even greater saving act by God—the coming of Jesus to set Israel and all nations free from bondage to sin, to gather them up and carry them back to God.

The good Magi and evil King Herod give us much to think about...
Fr. Victor Feltes
This is how the second chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel introduces us to the noble Magi and the infamous King Herod. Their good and bad examples in the story of Christmas present much for us to learn from and reflect on. The gospel tells us the Magi were astrologers from the East who saw a celestial sign which firmly convinced them the heir to the Jewish throne was born. The Magi were so convinced by this sign that they packed up valuable gifts and traveled...

It’s not hard to see why Disney’s terrible new “Wish” movie has bombed so badly at the box office...

Canonization Cause Advances for Antoni Gaudí, ‘God’s Architect’ and Builder of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família ...

That Arian punch, clerical cool, and the sound of our stratosphere...
J.D. Flynn
Celebrating the sainted bishop of Myra is a custom in countries around the world, with Catholics and other believers putting out their shoes on the doorstep, to receive in them some candies and coins. You probably know that this custom got started the same way that fireplace Christmas stockings did — because of the story in which St. Nicholas snuck bags of dowry money into the home of a poor family in his diocese, so that the family’s daughters wouldn’t be sold into slavery.

The Three Comings of Christ...

Pope Francis on First Sunday of Advent: ‘I’m Improving, but My Voice Still Doesn’t Work’...

There are many benefits to being a Catholic convert...
David Deavel
As an adult convert to the Catholic faith of long standing (I came into the Church in 1997 at the tender age of 23), I am very grateful for the completion of the faith first given to me in baptism in a Christian Reformed Church in 1978. For most of my life as a Catholic I have experienced both love and admiration from cradle Catholics. While I’m happy to take the love, sometimes the admiration makes me a bit nervous.

There’s an Advent lesson hidden in Thomas Cole’s series of paintings, “The Voyage of Life”...
Fr. Patrick Briscoe
“How I have walked ... day after day, and all alone, to see if there was not something among the old things which was new!” wrote the American painter Thomas Cole. Advent is a kind of walking, like an artist, looking for what has not been seen before. As we begin a new liturgical year, we eagerly scan the horizon, looking for the new graces God will send. We walk familiar terrain, hoping to see what is new. And the lesson is that in Advent, there is always something new to see.

I do not regret acting on the assumption that the Pope would be above petty quarrels...

Witnesses Testify to Torture by Nicaraguan Dictatorship at Hearing on Imprisoned Catholic Bishop Rolando Álvarez...

This Sunday, We Look at the Church and Say: ‘Come, Lord Jesus! Enough Is Enough’...

The Tsar, the rule of law, and the making of a legend...

The Baby Indi Gregory tragedy (and the NHS itself) reminds us that doctors aren’t deities...

Germany’s Bishop Stefan Oster Warns: Growing Division from Synodal Way Is “Disaster for the Faithful in Germany” ...

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