By Francis X. Maier By the time this column is read, the 2024 election will be decided. Or nearly so. And since what I say will affect no one's vote, and I don't know the outcome as I write, I can be candid. Simply put: My wife, our youngest son (who lives with us), and I all voted on Tuesday against the Democratic Party ticket at every level. The …

By Anthony Esolen I am relieved to find that Pope Francis has refrained from saying that someday we may be conferring, or pretending to confer, Holy Orders upon women. It keeps alive the possibility that the churches East and West may reunite. It averts an inevitable and devastating schism. It allows the faithful to retain their trust that, as Sigr…

By Robert Royal A crucial presidential election takes place tomorrow. This site operates under tax-exempt, non-profit status, which does not permit us to engage in partisan politics - let alone endorse candidates. But we're The Catholic Thing and have the constitutional right to comment on Catholic things. There are several such things in play this…

By Fr. Brian A. Graebe "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350" recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to glowing reviews. A collection of over 100 objects from around the world, the exhibition traces the emergence of Siena, a major stop along the Via Francigena connecting Rome to Canterbury, as a fulcrum of artistic innovation on the cu…

By Stephen P. White God, whose love is infinite, loves a finite number of people. He may love everyone, but the number is still finite. I read somewhere that the total number of human beings who have ever lived is estimated to be somewhere north of 100 billion. That's a lot of humans. How one estimates such a number is somewhat obscure to me, but i…

Christians, and particularly the Saints, have a record of flourishing under the least likely circumstances. The reader with even a passing acquaintance with Christian history will be familiar with this. They, and we, when we persist to victory, are undefeated even through defeat. For if God is for us, who can be against us? The faithful Christian w…

On this day, the 31st of October, All Hallows' Eve, many of our Protestant brothers and sisters celebrate Reformation Day - the momentous day in 1517 when the Augustinian friar Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The date always brings to mind my return to the Catholic Church some thirt…

But first a note: Be sure to tune in tomorrow night - Thursday, October 31st at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse - and the last for Synod Central - on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the conclusion of the second Synod on Synod…

I am not sad to be living abroad during this election season. The Atlantic may not be a complete buffer from all the silliness and vitriol swamping American democracy, but it's at least a filter. My diagnosis of our civic decadence is hardly original: the connection between the increasing dysfunction of American public life and a decline in religio…

The English poet John Keats spent the last years of his short life in Rome, wrote most of the handful of great poems that have made him famous in the Eternal City, died - and is buried - there. His tombstone in the Protestant Cemetery (in Italian, wonderfully called the Cimitero Acattolico, i.e. "A-Catholic" = Non-Catholic Cemetery) bears the inscr…

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia We hear very little about the people our Lord heals. That's not surprising. The miracles are to reveal and teach us about the Lord, not those He healed. So, when we hear about blind Bartimaeus in today's Gospel (Mark 10:46-52), we could easily pass over him as just another blessed recipient of Jesus' mercy. But he plays a bigg…

The flagship of the fleet, the Holy See Ship Synodality, is in dire straits (leaks about the final document that will be issued today suggest it will be, for those with radical hopes, a disappointment). HSS Synodality took a serious hit last December with the fiasco of Fiducia supplicans regarding the blessing of same-sex couples, and began listing…

Conclave, Edward Berger's new film, is based on the novel of that title by Robert Harris, which the movie mostly follows. The book has a curious beginning: the death of Pope Francis. Well, there's an author's note that ends with this disclaimer: "despite certain superficial resemblances. . .the late Holy Father depicted in Conclave [is not] meant t…

by Michael Pakaluk But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, October 24th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse - and for all of October, Synod Central - on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the ongoing second Synod…

Logicians have identified - and demolished - what they term a "circular argument." Basically, to propose an example, a circular argument goes something like this: The synodal Church is the Church foreseen by the Second Vatican Council. Why? Because the Second Vatican Council foresaw the synodal Church. In a circular argument, the conclusion is in t…

Veteran Vatican journalist Joan Lewis and TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal discuss some of the novelties and oddities about the Synod on Synodality in its final days – including the news that before the current session began some of the bishops got together and asked for a clear definition of synodality, which still remains unclear.…

By Dominic V. Cassella Today, October 22, 2024, marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of Louis Bouyer, the French Catholic priest who is seen as too Progressive by some traditionalist Catholics and too traditional by many liberal Catholics. With Hans Urs von Balthasar and Joseph Ratzinger, however, Bouyer was among the founders of the great …

By Msgr. Hans Feichtinger It may seem more difficult to answer the above question than it actually is. The Fathers of the Church who, as opposed to us, had deep synodal experience, have provided quite a clear answer: Synods are good for keeping the Church unified in the one faith in the one Saviour. They are good for defining and clarifying this fa…

By David G Bonagura, Jr. After years of bankruptcy litigation, my diocese has just agreed to a record $330 million payout to victims of sexual abuse by clergy. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles made even that hefty sum look small with an $880 million settlement. In these and many other cases, all of the diocese's parishes will be forced to contribute …

By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky An honest assessment of the Church's history over the past century reveals a good bit of moral sordidness but also surprisingly hopeful prospects. Future historians may consider this era the Age of Contraception and Homosexuality. And maybe also of Hope. Since ancient times, the Church has condemned the use of contraceptio…

By Robert Royal The Synod on Synodality is a self-defined exercise in listening, openness, transparency - and a whole litany of the usual progressive shibboleths. In practice, it has been marked by listening almost exclusively with the left ear, openings only to revisionist sects like pro-LGBT and women's ordination groups, and an absolute opaquene…

By David Warren Should everything be political? My own view is that nothing should be, or as little as possible, given our fallen human nature. And there should be laws against political schemes, as we have long had laws against theft, murder, and the other divine Commandments. But this is merely my opinion, which, of course, counts for nothing in …

By Stephen P. White But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, October 17th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse - and for all of October, Synod Central - on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the ongoing second Syno…

By Brad Miner But first a note: Be sure to tune in tomorrow night - Thursday, October 17th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse - and for all of October, it's Synod Central - on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the ongoing secon…

Theologian and commentator Dr. Larry Chapp discusses various developments at the Synod on Synodality with Robert Royal — and offers some reasons for hope amid confusions about Catholic morals and the potential for significant changes on authority within the Church.