CNA—Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, provided both diagnoses of and prescriptions for the most pervasive spiritual maladies of our times in an interview with EWTN News Rome correspondent Colm Flynn. One of the most popular bishops in the United States and founder of the Word on Fire evangelization ministry, Barron told Flynn the spiritual…
CNA—Super Bowl-winning kicker Harrison Butker shared a simple — but countercultural — message when he delivered a graduation speech at his alma mater, Georgia Tech, last year. “Get married and start a family,” the Kansas City Chiefs NFL star told the new graduates. Fully Catholic: No Apologies Outspoken about his Catholic faith for several years,…
In the Bible, the book of Ruth illustrates the difference between those who step out in faith and take risks, and those who give into fear, play it safe, and miss God’s best for them. God rewards faith, not fear! What Challenge was the St. John Paul II Life Center Facing? On December 21, 2023,…
CNA—In a “resounding victory” for religious freedom, a court in North Dakota ruled this week that the federal government cannot compel religious employers and health care providers to pay for or perform “gender transition” procedures that go against their religious beliefs. The North Dakota District Court found that the religious beliefs of Christian Employers Alliance…
CNA—Pope Francis has appointed a California-based astrophysicist to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Vatican announced Friday. The Holy Father nominated Andrea Mia Ghez as an ordinary member of the Vatican City-based academy. Black Holes Ghez’s website says she is “best known for her groundbreaking work on the center of our galaxy, which has led to…
CNA—Voters in Ireland appear to have voted to preserve the country’s constitutional recognition of the central role of the traditional family founded on marriage as well as the societal value of women within the home, rejecting a pair of referendums held March 8, pro-referendum government leaders conceded Saturday. “It does look like a ‘no’ vote…
ACI Prensa—March 7 marks the 750th anniversary of the death of St. Thomas Aquinas, the patron saint of Catholic education, who uttered a last prophecy and an emotional prayer before his departure to heaven. In addition, the saint reportedly spoke the lyrics of a beautiful hymn of his that is sung to this day throughout…
In case you did not know, we are so blessed to celebrate a triple jubilee of St. Thomas Aquinas in the years 2023-2025. July 18, 2023 marked the 700th anniversary of St. Thomas’ canonization by Pope John XXII in 1323. March 7, 2024, today, marks the 750th anniversary of his death at Fossanova, Italy in…
What is it that would move a young person to seek to live a deeply spiritual life? To dedicate his or her life to Jesus Christ, even to the point of forsaking all else in order to pursue him, and him alone, in a life of service to God’s Church in Holy Orders or religious…
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) published a document (Understanding Abortion Pills: Q & A on Chemical Abortions) to explain its concerns about the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval and deregulation of a chemical abortion pill, which is the subject of an ongoing U.S. Supreme Court case. A lawsuit filed by the pro-life…
CNA—CVS and Walgreens, the two largest pharmacy chains in the country, announced on Friday that they will begin selling the abortion pill mifepristone this month. Martin Maloney, a media representative for Walgreens, told CNA that the chain would begin distributing the pills within the next week in “select locations” in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California…
CNA—A broad coalition of 151 Catholics including medical professionals, bioethicists, and scholars released a joint letter this past week expressing concern about new guidelines issued by a major neurological society regarding “brain death” — a hotly contested topic in the medical community and among people of faith. American Association of Neurology changes guidelines on brain…
U.S. Catholic—As we rethink work post-pandemic, consider Catholic social teaching. Modern Catholic social thought is typically dated back to Pope Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (On Capital and Labor). It’s not that Catholicism had never dealt with social ethics before, of course, but the pope’s discussion marked a new level of reflection that considered…
It’s not talked about on the news but these days apparently illegal immigrants from communist China are the fastest group crossing the border from Mexico. This 60 Minutes short exposé reveals just how simple it is to do. And the private landowner on whose property this is happening—who is himself an immigrant who came over…
CWR/Vatican News—During Mass on Sunday morning, February 25, 2024, the pastor was among the 15 Catholic civilians killed in a Catholic Church in Essakane-Village, in the diocese of Dori, in the northeast of Burkina Faso, Africa. The diocese of Dori, which released the information in an obituary press release, invites people to pray for the…
Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron issued a spiritual call to arms to Detroit’s Catholics this Lenten season, explaining how by accepting ashes, they have engaged in a 40-day campaign to overcome sin. The archbishop gave his traditional preaching during the midday Ash Wednesday Mass on Feb. 14 at St. Aloysius Parish, a few blocks from Detroit’s…
Update on Jimmy Lai. The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, D.C., has installed a drawing of the Crucifixion by imprisoned Hong Kong Catholic and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai. Father Robert Sirico, a supporter and friend of Lai’s, said during the installation ceremony on Thursday that the sketch is a testimony “not just of…
CNA—Russian leaders on Friday announced the death of Alexei Navalny, a prominent opposition politician to President Vladimir Putin, in a Siberian prison. Navalny, 47, had been serving a 19-year sentence in a harsh penal colony north of the Arctic Circle for alleged extremism and years of criticism of the authoritarian Putin. Navalny’s political opposition to…
Last night I had the good fortune of attending our archdiocesan Pallium Lecture. It “is an annual event designed to foster conversation and engage the broader culture through the Catholic intellectual tradition,” per the Milwaukee Archdiocese website. Over the history of the event, the speakers have included Cardinal Dolan and Bishop Barron, among many other…
Vatican News—Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, the bishop emeritus of Hong Kong, has released another critique of the Synod on Synodality, arguing that the ongoing discussion and discernment process offers “two opposing visions” of the nature, organization, and role of the Church. On the one hand “On the one hand, the Church is presented as founded…
