From 2019: The imaginary encounter between Ratzinger and Bergoglio is imaginative, and emotionally satisfying. But we need to remember that it never happened.
In this 1985 piece, George Lindbeck offers his thoughts on the Ratzinger Report, a compilation of interviews with Cardinal Ratzinger published in 1985.
His 2019 essay departs not only from the current pope’s analysis of the sex-abuse crisis, but also from that of almost everyone else who has studied it.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI didn’t turn his back on Vatican II: he endorsed its core ideas, emphasizing the person of Christ and our role as Christ’s body.
Poet Rodger Kamenetz’s search for God expands the spiritual vocabulary of our time, crossing the borders of faith, driven by compassion and a self-sustaining wit.
In 2022, our contributors covered a lot of ground, from the synod on synodality, to the Ukraine war, to the threat of climate change. Here are some of our favorites.
G. K. Chesterton argues that we might get at some elementary truths about our civilization—if only grown-up people could be induced to take Santa Claus seriously.
We're seeing an unbinding of the deep affinity between representations of culture and Catholic culture. How did Catholicism come to be seen as the enemy?
“The Advent season prepares us to see the incarnation with the Passion in mind. God is all-powerful and in the incarnation is all-vulnerable. Both things are true.”
If the Church wants women to be its allies, it will need to recognize them as protagonists—full subjects with the agency to respond to the call of the Gospel.
Cyprus’ Orthodox Christians will soon head to the polls to vote for a new archbishop—dispelling the secrecy that normally characterizes the selection of hierarchs.
This month, the U.S. bishops met to elect new leadership. The gathering came at a time when the Church may be on its way to becoming a post-episcopal institution.
John McGreevy’s book is a gripping history of the modern Catholic Church, an institution at once a stolid purveyor of tradition and an agent of revolutionary change.
When Fr. Coughlin defended Kristallnacht, he turned to the work of Irish theologian Denis Fahey. Now, conservative Catholics are returning to Fahey for inspiration.
A synodal report from the American bishops reflects fears that the Church has become too “judgmental.” But a Church that does not judge cannot bear moral witness.
Paul Morland’s latest book shows that despite living longer, healthier lives, people are less willing to have children now than at any time in history.
From the archives: The catechesis of the 1970s became the model of what not to do in passing on the faith. For years I was sympathetic to that analysis. But now?
“Here in the overlap of the sixtieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican II and of the Cuban missile crisis, the latter has largely overshadowed the former.”
In 2002, the recently deceased Archbishop Rembert Weakland resigned amid a sex scandal. The end of his ecclesiastical career was the start of a spiritual journey.
From the archives: German theologian Gregory Baum reflects on the mysterious and promising early days of the Second Vatican Council, sixty years ago this month.
When we talk about abortion in America, we must talk about the suffering, shame, and guilt caused by the belief that it’s wrong to have a baby when you’re poor.