What did the Pope just say about abortion and Holy Communion? The Pillar explains...

Is it mortally sinful to stay silent about sin?
E. Christian Brugger
Let’s look at your two scenarios. In the first, you overheard remarks suggestive of erroneous thinking about expressing gender. In the second, you overheard remarks indicating that a girl dressed in a sexually suggestive way for Halloween. You obviously believe that gender and modesty are important or you wouldn’t have asked this question...

Our homes give our lives a center that grounds us, and draws us together...
John Cuddeback
Recently my wife and I were struck anew by a significant aspect of being-at-home, in the physical place. Our lives are given a center that grounds us and draws us together. Of late we have done some travelling, and this following upon an unusually busy summer. By and large the things that called us away from our home, and also demanded that time in our home be focused on things remote from it, were important and worthy of attention...

Full text: Pope Francis’ in-flight press conference from Slovakia...

Imagine if the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier treated their duty as shabbily as we’ve treated the Mass...
Anthony Esolen
I’ve heard a lot of gloating in the last few weeks, as Catholics of a certain sort enjoy the discomfiture of their brothers who attend the Latin Mass. Evil motives prompt those brothers, they say: hatred of Pope Francis, disdain for Vatican II, unease with women in the sanctuary, and a Right-wing politics that makes a fetish of the unborn child while ignoring the Church’s social teaching as regards the poor.

How a lost masterpiece of sacred art was discovered thanks to children — and their chewing gum...

Exorcist tells what CNN got wrong in story about ghostly encounters...
Patti Armstrong
Can loved ones contact us from beyond the grave? CNN recently considered the possibility focusing on communication from people who died from COVID-19. A secular look at the supernatural, however, leaves gaping holes where religion belongs. In “They Lost Their Loved Ones to Covid; Then Again, They Heard From Them,” CNN reported on experiences referred to in the psychological field as...

700 years after his death, the great Dante still has lessons to impart...

Pope gets lucky as this Hungary/Slovakia trip offers an unplanned chance to reassure Jews...
John Allen
In college I had a history professor who insisted that the principal blind spot of his profession is that it won’t accept dumb luck as an explanation. He’d once wanted to write an academic paper, he said, on how Meade simply got lucky against Lee at Gettysburg, but he was told it wouldn’t do because it would be tantamount to admitting historians can’t explain everything.

Today is the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, and this is the Tuesday Pillar Post...
J.D. Flynn
Pope Francis is visiting Slovakia today, after a seven-hour visit to Hungary for the closing Mass of the Church’s International Eucharistic Congress. The pope will be in Slovakia until Wednesday afternoon. On Monday, The Pillar brought you a quick run-down of where he’s been, what’s he’s said, and where he’s going next. Also, ast week, Cardinal Wilton Gregory told journalists that theologians...

Christian, go home, and live like Jesus...
David Mills
She was peeved. A friend had come across a quote from a “motivational speaker.” “There are too many people who would rather get home than get ahead,” he had said. They only want to get by. He had it backwards, she said. She got by in a hard time and then got ahead by going home. It’s the kind of glib line a “motivational speaker” would use. But not innocent. It expresses an inhuman and unchristian idea of what matters in life. It’s a very worldly line.

Archbishop Cordileone and Archbishop Gomez in the WSJ: ‘Don’t Slander St. Junípero Serra’...

How to stay Catholic in high school and college...

Pope Francis visits former ‘Bronx of Slovakia’ transformed by Mother Teresa’s nuns...

When my friend cussed in front of Mother Teresa, this was her surprising (and funny) reaction...

The feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is October 1. Sign up for this online Dominican novena to help prepare...

You may be a glutton. Screwtape knows how...

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