Takeaways from the Vatican’s ‘Thursday Thunder’...
John Allen
For the whole Catholic world, August 15 means the Feast of the Assumption. In Italy, it also means ferragosto, the traditional summer holiday that sees the whole country head to either the beach or the mountains, or both, roughly from the second week of August until early September. Pope Francis, famously the pontiff of the “staycation,” isn’t going anywhere, but a good chunk of his workforce will be...

This Sunday, step out into the storm...
Tom Hoopes
The wind is raging, the waves are taller than the boat. The night seems never ending, and even Jesus isn’t calming the storm. Do you hunker down and go where the wind takes you? Do you grit your teeth and wait for the end? Or do you step out into the storm? That is the question the Gospel and readings ask us this Sunday, the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.

Are you discouraged? Don’t lose heart. Here are some practical things you can do to fight discouragement...

People keep asking: Why does press say ‘religious left,’ as opposed to ‘Religious Left?’...
Terry Mattingly
Every now and then, readers — or people I meet in daily life — ask this question: Why do journalists write so much about the Religious Right (capital letters), while devoting way less digital ink to the actions, policies and beliefs of the religious left (no capital letters). That is a complex question and you can hear me struggling with it all the way through this week’s “Crossroads” podcast...

Today’s lesson from Rome is about perspective and patience...

The dangers of canceling culture...
Fr. George Rutler
In the ethnic tradition of Anglo-Saxons, the “patter songs” of Gilbert and Sullivan have been the equivalent of contemporary rap music. Learning the repertoire was part of the expected rites of passage and, in the 1960s, I did my duty, even attaining to the heights of playing Sir Ruthven Murgatroyd, a baronet disguised as young farmer Robin Oakapple in a New York City production of Ruddigore. In the second act, portraits of Robin’s ancestor come alive and step out of their frames to curse him as he writhes in unspeakable agony. While I quickly fell from that peak in my theatrical career, I still have clippings of critical reviews that thought my plangent voice and shrieks of pain were convincing.

The best ways to reheat and reuse leftover french fries...

Vatican warns: Using novel “We baptize” form of Baptism makes the sacrament invalid...

Pope Francis appoints six women to the Vatican’s Council for the Economy...

Whatever the future holds, don’t fear. Don’t fret. Just do what you can to be properly prepared...
John Cuddeback
One cannot but notice a growing sense of concern and even anxiety about the future. Are we in for serious disruptions of the social order, and should we be doing something to prepare? The fact is that the last several months have taught a lesson: things we thought could not happen can happen, surprisingly quickly. This lesson should not be without fruit in our lives. But what is the appropriate response?

‘No one has experienced this’ in Lebanon — Beirut blast threatens national catastrophe...

Ernest Hemingway and Flannery O’Connor were two very different Catholic writers, but both were pierced by suffering...

After Beirut explosion, Lebanon asks for prayer, turns to St. Charbel...

Pope Francis and a new private secretariat...
Andrea Gagliarducci
Why does Pope Francis feel the need to replace all the members of his private secretariat? At first, Fabián Pedacchio Leániz, who served as Pope Francis’ first secretary since the beginning of the pontificate, left the office at the beginning of the year. Pedacchio had been an official at the Congregation for Bishops since 2007, when then Cardinal Bergoglio sent him to Rome.

On the truest source of our dignity...
Msgr. Charles Pope
One of our deeper wounds is that we tend to doubt our dignity, especially in times of trouble. We look to human being who are fickle for a sense of honor and prestige in our life. But St. Peter Chrysologus reminds us of the true source of our dignity, and that of others, in a homily in last week’s office, saying, A virgin conceived, bore a son, and yet remained a virgin...

At Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis urges Catholics to follow ‘God’s logic,’ laments firebomb attack on cathedral in Nicaragua...

COVID-19 has changed the way Europeans go to Mass — for the worse...

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