The Power and Purpose of Names in Scripture...
Names occupy a central role in the Bible. The prophet Joel assures us that “all who call upon the name of the LORD shall be delivered.” In the Book of Proverbs, we are reminded that “[t]he name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” Meanwhile, the Second Commandment instructs us not to misuse the divine name: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. It is no surprise, then, that the Catechism highlights for us the overall importance of names...
Eiji Tsuburaya: The Catholic Convert Behind Godzilla...
A Double Header, a Quiet Cardinal, and the Only Way to Fly...
Next week is the USCCB Fall Plenary Assembly. I am not making any predictions about what kind of session it will be this year because, frankly, I really do think it could go either way. The bishops are due to convene for the first time under the Leonine pontificate — in which the first American pope has already made it abundantly clear he takes a dim view of publicly fractious exchanges...
Pope Leo XIV Calls on Catholic Innovators to Evangelize Through AI...
Will an American Pope Have a ‘Leo Effect’ on the US Bishops?
It may not be an official agenda item. But a top priority for the U.S. bishops at their fall meeting next week in Baltimore may well be to get off on the right foot with Pope Leo XIV. Elected in May, Leo’s papacy comes after a complicated 12-year relationship between his predecessor, Pope Francis, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). The two parties were widely viewed to be out of sync, with the USCCB facing criticism for downplaying papal priorities and Francis regularly bypassing conference leadership for key appointments.
Wojtyla vs. ChatGPT: To Think Things through to the End...
“It could be said that present-day man does not think things through to the end.”1 Karol Cardinal Wojtyla delivered that fine bit of understatement in 1976, at the outset of the spiritual conferences he gave to the Roman Curia that Lent. At the time, his primary concern seems to have been the tendency of secular men and women to falter in the search for truth, for, as Archbishop of Krakow, he was daily confronted...
Sir Anthony Hopkins Is Thankful...
People caught in the chaotic highways around Los Angeles have been known to shout at God from time to time — often in the form of angry curses aimed at other drivers. But that was the mysterious setting in which Anthony Hopkins had a quiet epiphany in which God quietly spoke to him, offering the actor — an atheist alcoholic at the time — a choice that changed his life. While most episodes of “Crossroads” focus on religious issues...
Church Tribunal Acquits Priest of Charge of ‘Inciting Hatred’ Against the Holy See...
My Experiences With Angels As a Hospice Nurse...
Newman and the New Ultramontanism...
The All Saints Day proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as a Doctor of the Church was entirely welcome, if not without a certain irony. First, the good news. Newman was one of the most creative Christian minds of the nineteenth century, a truth seeker whose lifelong search for the face of Christ took him from evangelicalism through reformist, High Church Anglicanism into Catholicism...
Mater Populi Fidelis: Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation...
The present Note responds to numerous requests and proposals that have reached the Holy See in recent decades, and particularly this Dicastery, regarding questions pertaining to Marian devotion and certain Marian titles. These are questions that have concerned recent Popes and have been repeatedly addressed in the last thirty years in various areas of study within the Dicastery, such as Congresses and Ordinary Assemblies...
St. Martin de Porres Walked Through Walls — and Into Our Lives on the Day My Father Died...
A Vision of the Saints in Heaven...
This Sunday, the Church Radically Challenges Our Misunderstanding About Death...
Faith and Death Go Hand in Hand...
Vatican to Weigh in on Mary’s Role in Salvation With Document on Nov. 4...
With Thousands in Sudan Trapped in Besieged City, Catholic Leaders Amplify Calls to End War...
Bishop John Persaud: Jamaicans Trust 'God Is With Us' Through Planet's Worst Hurricane of 2025...
The Grammar of Catholic Education...
9 Baseball Heavy Hitters for a Catholic World Series Dream Team...
How God Used a ‘Nobody’ to Convert 10 Million People at Guadalupe...
Who’s the Front-Runner to Lead at the USCCB?
Octopus Arms Are the Animal Kingdom’s Most Flexible...
Bishops Need to Earn Their Priests’ Confidence...
What’s Happening to the Anglican Communion?
Hamas’ War on Women: Survivors Detail Horrors of Captivity...
John Paul II: The Man, the Pope, the Saint...
No Favorites: A Reflection on the Upcoming 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time...
Why Use Many Streetlights When One Will Do?
Today in Papal History: Italian Normans Overpower the Pope’s Armies...
Michael Lentz is an expert on the Normans and the creator of Memory Medieval on Substack, Youtube, and X (formerly Twitter), and he joined me to tell the story of the 11th Century Battle of Civitate, in which the Italian Normans fought the pope’s armies and emerged victorious. But we didn’t just talk about the battle itself...
Teaching Is an Act of Holiness Rooted in Love and Revealed in Virtue...
The identity of a teacher is often misperceived as an individual who simply conveys information, regurgitates concepts, and assesses a student's academic competency. In many ways, the entire educational process resembles an assembly line of concepts that aim to construct a functional student from a utilitarian perspective. The thought of guiding a student to utilize their intellect, will, faith, and reason...
This Sunday, Celebrate the ‘Safe Space’ Jesus Would Die To Protect: Our Church...
You can tell a lot from verbs. In the cleansing of the Temple scene from the Gospel of John this Sunday, you get some violent ones: Jesus “made a whip,” “drove them all out,” “spilled the coins” and “overturned the tables.” Why was he so angry? Not to exact vengeance, but to correct vices: Priests and merchants were gouging a captive market for sacrificial animals and demanding fees to change money from various regions...
Why Cathedrals Matter...
This coming Sunday is the Feast of the Dedication of the St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. Founded in 324, it’s Rome’s oldest church, the oldest basilica on earth, and a sign of the victory and perseverance of the Church after hundreds of years of Roman persecution. But why do Catholics make such a big deal out of places of worship? Some people criticize our cathedrals and ask...
8 Months Later, It Still Stuns Me: A Guy From My German Existentialism Class Is Now the Pope...
Body Building: A Reflection on the Upcoming Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome...
Why commemorate a church dedication that happened in fourth-century Rome? First, because St. John Lateran is no ordinary church; it’s the cathedral church of the Pope and still known as “the mother of all the world’s churches.” But more than that, because God has from all time intended the church building to be a symbol of His Church and our bodies. This is what the readings for today’s feast invite us to consider...
Why Are Fewer Catholics Having Church Funerals?
What Keeps a Father Up at Night...
Sleep deprivation is recognized as a form of torture, with good reason. Being kept up at night or inability to sleep is often a serious suffering. Yet being kept up, sometimes in the form of choosing to stay up, is a part of parenting. The arrival of a newborn in a home brings sleeplessness in some degree—sometimes a high one. Usually this falls first and hardest on the mother. Yet this very fact offers a husband the opportunity to consider an important question, namely, to what extent he will choose to take sleeplessness as a normal part of being a father.
What Are America’s Most Fruitful Dioceses? A Look at the Numbers...
Pope Leo XIV’s Sunday Angelus on All Souls Day: ‘Remembering the Dead Brings Hope to the Future’...
What Did Jesus Mean When He Said That He Is Coming Soon?
Honeymooning, Canonical Trick or Treat, and ‘Tis the Season...
Yes, Ghosts Exist: An Interview With Catholic Apologist Jimmy Akin...
Jimmy Akin is the senior apologist at Catholic Answers, with more than 30 years of experience defending and explaining the faith, and co-host of the Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World podcast. The Register recently asked him to explain Catholic teaching on ghosts and otherworldly phenomena. The Church teaches the existence of human spirits, and the term “ghost” means the same thing as “spirit,” which is why the Holy Spirit is also called the Holy Ghost...
Antisemitism Is a Malignancy in Society...
Mar Awa III Gives Leo XIV a Chicago Cubs Jersey, Rivals of the Pope’s White Sox...
St. Jude, and the US bishops' conference...
All Souls: A Reflection on the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed...
Mother Catherine of Siena Defied the Red Dragon of Soviet Communism...
5 Ways Protestant ‘Dunks’ on Catholics Backfire...
The Sinister Crisis Ravaging America’s Young Men...
Cardinal Burke Celebrates Latin Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica...
This Sunday, How Satan ‘Ambushes’ Religious People (and How to Get Away)...
Shaking Hands, Vigano II, and Spy Time...
What Does the Bible Say About Israel?
St. John Henry Newman’s ‘Second Spring’ Reaches Its Full Bloom...
Pope Leo XIV and King Charles III Make History With First Joint Prayer Since Reformation...
The 5 Great October Homilies of St. John Paul II...
Scared of Spiders? Some Former Arachnophobes Now Are Keeping Jumping Spiders as Pets...
Straight to Heaven, Straight to Hell...
27 Aphorisms for Knowing God in the Present World...
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The Complete List of Popes
- St. Peter (32-67)
- St. Linus (67-76)
- St. Anacletus (Cletus) (76-88)
- St. Clement I (88-97)
- St. Evaristus (97-105)
- St. Alexander I (105-115)
- St. Sixtus I (115-125)
- St. Telesphorus (125-136)
- St. Hyginus (136-140)
- St. Pius I (140-155)
- St. Anicetus (155-166)
- St. Soter (166-175)
- St. Eleutherius (175-189)
- St. Victor I (189-199)
- St. Zephyrinus (199-217)
- St. Callistus I (217-22)
- St. Urban I (222-30)
- St. Pontian (230-35)
- St. Anterus (235-36)
- St. Fabian (236-50)
- St. Cornelius (251-53)
- St. Lucius I (253-54)
- St. Stephen I (254-257)
- St. Sixtus II (257-258)
- St. Dionysius (260-268)
- St. Felix I (269-274)
- St. Eutychian (275-283)
- St. Caius (283-296)
- St. Marcellinus (296-304)
- St. Marcellus I (308-309)
- St. Eusebius (309 or 310)
- St. Miltiades (311-14)
- St. Sylvester I (314-35)
- St. Marcus (336)
- St. Julius I (337-52)
- Liberius (352-66)
- St. Damasus I (366-84)
- St. Siricius (384-99)
- St. Anastasius I (399-401)
- St. Innocent I (401-17)
- St. Zosimus (417-18)
- St. Boniface I (418-22)
- St. Celestine I (422-32)
- St. Sixtus III (432-40)
- St. Leo I (the Great) (440-61)
- St. Hilarius (461-68)
- St. Simplicius (468-83)
- St. Felix III (II) (483-92)
- St. Gelasius I (492-96)
- Anastasius II (496-98)
- St. Symmachus (498-514)
- St. Hormisdas (514-23)
- St. John I (523-26)
- St. Felix IV (III) (526-30)
- Boniface II (530-32)
- John II (533-35)
- St. Agapetus I (535-36)
- St. Silverius (536-37)
- Vigilius (537-55)
- Pelagius I (556-61)
- John III (561-74)
- Benedict I (575-79)
- Pelagius II (579-90)
- St. Gregory I (the Great) (590-604)
- Sabinian (604-606)
- Boniface III (607)
- St. Boniface IV (608-15)
- St. Deusdedit (Adeodatus I) (615-18)
- Boniface V (619-25)
- Honorius I (625-38)
- Severinus (640)
- John IV (640-42)
- Theodore I (642-49)
- St. Martin I (649-55)
- St. Eugene I (655-57)
- St. Vitalian (657-72)
- Adeodatus (II) (672-76)
- Donus (676-78)
- St. Agatho (678-81)
- St. Leo II (682-83)
- St. Benedict II (684-85)
- John V (685-86)
- Conon (686-87)
- St. Sergius I (687-701)
- John VI (701-05)
- John VII (705-07)
- Sisinnius (708)
- Constantine (708-15)
- St. Gregory II (715-31)
- St. Gregory III (731-41)
- St. Zachary (741-52)
- Stephen II (III) (752-57)
- St. Paul I (757-67)
- Stephen III (IV) (767-72)
- Adrian I (772-95)
- St. Leo III (795-816)
- Stephen IV (V) (816-17)
- St. Paschal I (817-24)
- Eugene II (824-27)
- Valentine (827)
- Gregory IV (827-44)
- Sergius II (844-47)
- St. Leo IV (847-55)
- Benedict III (855-58)
- St. Nicholas I (the Great) (858-67)
- Adrian II (867-72)
- John VIII (872-82)
- Marinus I (882-84)
- St. Adrian III (884-85)
- Stephen V (VI) (885-91)
- Formosus (891-96)
- Boniface VI (896)
- Stephen VI (VII) (896-97)
- Romanus (897)
- Theodore II (897)
- John IX (898-900)
- Benedict IV (900-03)
- Leo V (903)
- Sergius III (904-11)
- Anastasius III (911-13)
- Lando (913-14)
- John X (914-28)
- Leo VI (928)
- Stephen VIII (929-31)
- John XI (931-35)
- Leo VII (936-39)
- Stephen IX (939-42)
- Marinus II (942-46)
- Agapetus II (946-55)
- John XII (955-63)
- Leo VIII (963-64)
- Benedict V (964)
- John XIII (965-72)
- Benedict VI (973-74)
- Benedict VII (974-83)
- John XIV (983-84)
- John XV (985-96)
- Gregory V (996-99)
- Sylvester II (999-1003)
- John XVII (1003)
- John XVIII (1003-09)
- Sergius IV (1009-12)
- Benedict VIII (1012-24)
- John XIX (1024-32)
- Benedict IX (1032-45)
- Sylvester III (1045)
- Benedict IX (1045)
- Gregory VI (1045-46)
- Clement II (1046-47)
- Benedict IX (1047-48)
- Damasus II (1048)
- St. Leo IX (1049-54)
- Victor II (1055-57)
- Stephen X (1057-58)
- Nicholas II (1058-61)
- Alexander II (1061-73)
- St. Gregory VII (1073-85)
- Blessed Victor III (1086-87)
- Blessed Urban II (1088-99)
- Paschal II (1099-1118)
- Gelasius II (1118-19)
- Callistus II (1119-24)
- Honorius II (1124-30)
- Innocent II (1130-43)
- Celestine II (1143-44)
- Lucius II (1144-45)
- Blessed Eugene III (1145-53)
- Anastasius IV (1153-54)
- Adrian IV (1154-59)
- Alexander III (1159-81)
- Lucius III (1181-85)
- Urban III (1185-87)
- Gregory VIII (1187)
- Clement III (1187-91)
- Celestine III (1191-98)
- Innocent III (1198-1216)
- Honorius III (1216-27)
- Gregory IX (1227-41)
- Celestine IV (1241)
- Innocent IV (1243-54)
- Alexander IV (1254-61)
- Urban IV (1261-64)
- Clement IV (1265-68)
- Blessed Gregory X (1271-76)
- Blessed Innocent V (1276)
- Adrian V (1276)
- John XXI (1276-77)
- Nicholas III (1277-80)
- Martin IV (1281-85)
- Honorius IV (1285-87)
- Nicholas IV (1288-92)
- St. Celestine V (1294)
- Boniface VIII (1294-1303)
- Blessed Benedict XI (1303-04)
- Clement V (1305-14)
- John XXII (1316-34)
- Benedict XII (1334-42)
- Clement VI (1342-52)
- Innocent VI (1352-62)
- Blessed Urban V (1362-70)
- Gregory XI (1370-78)
- Urban VI (1378-89)
- Boniface IX (1389-1404)
- Innocent VII (1404-06)
- Gregory XII (1406-15)
- Martin V (1417-31)
- Eugene IV (1431-47)
- Nicholas V (1447-55)
- Callistus III (1455-58)
- Pius II (1458-64)
- Paul II (1464-71)
- Sixtus IV (1471-84)
- Innocent VIII (1484-92)
- Alexander VI (1492-1503)
- Pius III (1503)
- Julius II (1503-13)
- Leo X (1513-21)
- Adrian VI (1522-23)
- Clement VII (1523-34)
- Paul III (1534-49)
- Julius III (1550-55)
- Marcellus II (1555)
- Paul IV (1555-59)
- Pius IV (1559-65)
- St. Pius V (1566-72)
- Gregory XIII (1572-85)
- Sixtus V (1585-90)
- Urban VII (1590)
- Gregory XIV (1590-91)
- Innocent IX (1591)
- Clement VIII (1592-1605)
- Leo XI (1605)
- Paul V (1605-21)
- Gregory XV (1621-23)
- Urban VIII (1623-44)
- Innocent X (1644-55)
- Alexander VII (1655-67)
- Clement IX (1667-69)
- Clement X (1670-76)
- Blessed Innocent XI (1676-89)
- Alexander VIII (1689-91)
- Innocent XII (1691-1700)
- Clement XI (1700-21)
- Innocent XIII (1721-24)
- Benedict XIII (1724-30)
- Clement XII (1730-40)
- Benedict XIV (1740-58)
- Clement XIII (1758-69)
- Clement XIV (1769-74)
- Pius VI (1775-99)
- Pius VII (1800-23)
- Leo XII (1823-29)
- Pius VIII (1829-30)
- Gregory XVI (1831-46)
- Blessed Pius IX (1846-78)
- Leo XIII (1878-1903)
- St. Pius X (1903-14)
- Benedict XV (1914-22)
- Pius XI (1922-39)
- Pius XII (1939-58)
- St. John XXIII (1958-63)
- St. Paul VI (1963-78)
- John Paul I (1978)
- St. John Paul II (1978-2005)
- Benedict XVI (2005-2013)
- Francis (2013-2025)
- Leo XIV (2025—)
