St. John Chrysostom’s Letter to a Young Widow...
Meet Judge Frank Caprio, ‘the Kindest Judge in America’ — Who Now Needs Your Prayers...
Pope Francis Remains Hospitalized at Gemelli — ‘Assessments and Treatment Are Continuing’...
The Valentine’s Gambit, Hot Takes, and American Mythology...
It is the feast of St. Valentine, of course — widely marked throughout the world as just “Valentine’s Day.” Out of all of the roided-out global consumer holidays with an historic toehold in Christianity that pockmark our calendars and bank accounts, I have to say I find this one the most curious. In this country, the day is, depending on what building you’re standing in, either a twee bonanza of affection or a carnival of raunch. The juxtaposition gives me constant whiplash.
Why are churches being bombed in Myanmar?
When Pope Francis established the Diocese of Mindat in Myanmar at the end of January, the local Church of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus was raised to the status of a cathedral. Just 12 days later, bombs struck the building, leaving it unusable. The bombing in Myanmar’s impoverished Chin State was reported Feb. 10 by Agenzia Fides, the Pontifical Mission Societies’ information service...
JD Vance takes to ‘Catholic Twitter,’ and responds to a National Catholic Register journalist, to defend his position on AI deregulations...
Vice President JD Vance is known as a tech-savvy millennial. And the 40-year-old Catholic convert played the part Wednesday when he took to social media to directly respond to skeptical comments from a Register journalist about how his policy views align with his deeper commitments. The subject was not immigration, a topic on which Vance’s use of Catholic theology to justify the Trump administration’s “America First” approach...
UK police officer orders Catholic woman to leave public area because her pro-life views are ‘offensive’...
New video footage shows a police officer demanding a Catholic woman walk away from an abortion clinic simply because of what she is known to believe. The officer of West Midlands Police is seen demanding that charitable volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce leaves a public area where she was standing alone and praying silently. In the footage, obtained by ADF UK, a Christian legal organisation, the police officer explained that he believes...
AI and Chatting with Your Future Self...
Earlier this month, in its regular Artificial Intelligence section, the Wall Street Journal ran a 2,000-word feature – for a newspaper, that’s serious ink – on the AI program “FutureYou.” Developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), FutureYou allows you to talk with your 80-year-old self. It also (regrettably) projects what you’ll look like. The idea, according to the WSJ author, “is that if people can see and talk to their older selves, they will be able to think about them more concretely, and make changes now that will help them achieve the future they hope for.”
The body of St. Bernadette, who died 145 years ago, is incorrupt. Why do the remains of some saints not decay?
Incorruptibility is a tricky subject. The preservation or decay of human remains can be affected by numerous factors ranging from preparation of the body to environmental conditions and beyond. St. Margaret of Cortona, once counted among the incorruptibles, was subsequently shown to be mummified at the time of interment. Others are not so easy to explain...
Catholic Church gets its ‘28 Days Later’ after Pope’s letter to U.S. bishops...
I felt the urge to watch 28 Days Later on Tuesday. In case you don’t recognize the title, it’s a 2002 movie about a man – Jim, played by Cillian Murphy – who awakes from a coma to find the world changed utterly. In 28 Days Later, a cataclysmic virus has swept away the world that was when the protagonist fell into his torpor.
Letter to U.S. Bishops on Immigration ...
How the Church is the ‘Israel of God’...
Q&A and 5 Facts on St. Josephine Bakhita...
Your parish doesn’t need more ‘ministries.’ It needs more concerts, lectures and social events...
Losing Isn’t Everything: 4 Lessons from the Chiefs’ Loss in the Super Bowl...
7 Takeaways from the ‘Plain’ Beatitudes of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel This Sunday...
We hear the Beatitudes from Jesus’s “Sermon on the Plain” in the Gospel of Luke Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, and they are different in important ways from the more familiar Beatitudes we hear in the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. As Pope Benedict XVI pointed out, we needn’t worry that there are differences in the two. Of course Jesus shared the Beatitudes...
1.3 Million Pilgrims Pass Through Basilica of St. Peter’s Holy Door in Jubilee’s First Month...
‘Fraternally Francis’: Does a papal ‘hot take’ on immigration help?
Dresden’s Moral Fallout Continues to Affect Us 80 Years Later...
Feb. 13 marks the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the allied bombing of the eastern German city of Dresden. In a series of aerial bombardments lasting until Feb. 15, 1945, the Allies dropped around 3,900 tons of conventional and incendiary bombs on the city, setting off a massive city-wide firestorm and leveling hundreds of buildings, leaving 25,000 dead citizens of Dresden in its wake.
England’s Decline: As ‘Our Lady’s Dowry’ Wanes, Is the Catholic Faith Set for a Revival?
Britain’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently caused a mini-uproar by saying the Church of England’s failure to fill “an aching spiritual void” had led to large numbers of British citizens “gorging themselves” and becoming obese instead. While he was being deliberately provocative about a widespread disorder to which Johnson, by his own admission, is not immune, the connection between spiritual need and societal ills is one that others have also noticed as the country suffers from a well-publicized and growing socio-political malaise that extends well beyond obesity.
Russia’s Sacrilegious War on Ukraine...
Today’s Russian Orthodox leadership is a theological, moral, and pastoral train wreck. U.S. foreign policy can’t fix that. Nonetheless, those responsible for devising U.S. foreign policy should recognize how that train wreck helps define Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine, even as it conditions any resolution of the war worthy of the name “peace.”
The Antidote to News: Real Life Here and Now...
Wise men and the purveyors of contemporary culture recognize the same dramatic truth. We are addicted to news. Probably unlike the purveyors, the wise perceive the root of the addiction and so can offer something the purveyors don’t want—a path to freedom. Over fourscore years ago in the opening days of the Second World War, Friedrich Juenger penned the following remarkable lines...
John Allen’s conspicuous absence explained — with a request for your prayers...
Regular readers of Crux, or regular consumers of my weekly video or podcast, will have noticed my rather conspicuous absence these past three weeks or so. Proving once more that Crux types are an observant lot, many of you have wondered if my disppearance had something to do with my health. In a word, yes. On Jan. 14, I was rushed in for emergency surgery to correct an occlusion of my abdomen. I’m happy to report the surgery was a success, and I’m now home and more or less recovered.
Benedict XVI’s ‘Renuntiare,’ Detroit Gets a New Archbishop, and Some News...
Today is the fifth Tuesday in Ordinary Time, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post. Twelve years ago today, Pope Benedict XVI arrived at the Sala del Concistoro in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, for a meeting at which numerous curial cardinals were present, held ostensibly to announce the date of an upcoming canonization.
The Persecuted Must Survive the Wrecking Ball...
The Tenderness of Pier Giorgio Frassati’s Second Miracle...
A remarkable resurgence of Catholic education and formation...
Nicaragua’s Communist Regime Calls Vatican ‘Depraved’ After EWTN Interviews Exiled Bishop Álvarez...
Family Life In America: Partisan Divide Widens Over Marriage And Faith...
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