Was Humanae Vitae prophetic? Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical condemning contraception has often been described that way, and, not to be coy about it, I’ve often called it prophetic myself. But with the 40^th anniversary of this remarkable document at hand July…

“Is your book like Scott McClellan’s?” an interviewer asked me that the other day, thereby suggesting a possible parallel between the former White House press secretary’s insider tell-all volume about the Bush administration and my new book about the issue…

One of the genuinely hopeful developments in Catholic life in recent years has been the spread of Eucharistic adoration. Parishes across the country have begun to offer opportunities for people to meditate and pray before the Blessed Sacrament. In some…

Pope Benedict XVI won't be drawn into American politics when he comes to the U.S. in April in the middle of a heated presidential race. That's what the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, told an Italian Catholic magazine,…

On a quick trip to Rome a few weeks ago, I made it a point to visit the Gesu, the mother church of the Society of Jesus, and to pray for the Jesuits and their general congregation opening January 7.…

Purely by coincidence (which means: by providential design), I spent my spare time in the days before the release of Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Saved by Hope ("Spe Salvi") reading a book about hopeless people. Vile Bodies is one of Evelyn…

That the traditional family has been under attack by a variety of secular interests for many years is, at this late date, too obvious to rate as news. When the assault on the family comes from a religious source, however,…

Call it the pro-lifers' dilemma. It comes down to this: conscientious opponents of abortion now face the distinct possibility of having no acceptable choice in the presidential election of 2008. After all, even staying home on election day could be…

Have you noticed those books for recording "intentions" popping up in churches these days? Maybe they've been there all along, but it's only rather recently that I've become aware of them.

The books are there so that parishioners and visitors…

It's a truism bordering on cliché that you don't find atheists in foxholes. These days, though, there appear to be more than a few self-professed nonbelievers in the fleshpots of the West.

One sign of this seeming upsurge is the current…

There's so much to admire about Philip Jenkins' approach to discussing religious issues that stating one's reservations may seem like nitpicking. But the matters treated in Jenkins' new book God's Continent (Oxford University Press, 2007) are so serious that the…

Who's the most attention-riveting member of the Supreme Court? Antonin Scalia has his fans, but for many people it's no contest: the answer is Clarence Thomas.

Thomas's ability to command popular attention has little to do with his judicial philosophy —…

"If everybody would just be friends with everybody else, what a wonderful world this would be!" I've heard that often and you probably have, too. Churlish though it may be to say so, this lovely thought is too simple by…

Could a Catholic be elected president? Forty-seven years after the election of John F. Kennedy, and with a gaggle of Catholic candidates seeking the nominations of both political parties, that may sound like the kind of question Rip Van Winkle…

A Catholic father, an intelligent and conscientious man, was explaining why he and his wife took their daughter out of a Catholic high school: "They told the kids that the gospels weren't true."

Compare that with Pope Benedict XVI's affirmation in…

"A sandlot school of virtues." The narrator describes baseball that way in Champions of Faith, an impressive new documentary featuring Catholic big leaguers. The gripping hour that follows demonstrates his point.

Produced by Catholic Exchange in association with American Family Media…

Whenever I'm tempted to think the discussion of religion and politics in the run-up to the 2008 elections can't get worse, a funny thing happens. It gets worse.

One day it's 18 Catholic Democrats in the House of Representatives complaining that…

Why hasn't the abortion controversy in 40-plus years given rise to a significant body of literature and art? Journalism — yes. Propaganda — certainly. And propagandistic journalism — entirely too much. But of works of authentic artistic sensibility and creativity…

Like a zombie trailing grave cloths through the halls of Congress, the Equal Rights Amendment, dead and buried this quarter-century, has come back to scare the living daylights out of us all. An icon for secular feminists that's coming up…

The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision upholding the federal ban on partial-birth abortion is a first step. But it's only that — a first, limited step toward the ultimate goal of restoring real protection to the unborn. For now that goal,…

Reports from Baghdad suggest that, alongside the continuing carnage, the U.S. troop surge combined with new tactics may be having some effect in quelling the insurgency. It's too soon to draw conclusions — the insurgents, remember, are a resilient and…

Attending Mass early in Lent at a Roman church located just a five-minute stroll from St. Peter's, I noticed a priest sitting alone in a side chapel. Then I noticed something else. As Mass progressed, members of the congregation —…

Ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks leveled the towers of the World Trade Center and left a smoking crater in the side of the Pentagon, Americans have been tugged and pulled by two competing sets of values. On one side…

Although, practically speaking, the 2008 presidential campaign began the day after the campaign of 2004 ended, it has lately shifted visibly and audibly into high gear. Make no mistake, that means trouble ahead for the Church.

It's not only that several…

Readers who have fond memories of the great old Walt Kelly comic strip Pogo will also remember fondly famous words spoken by one of its characters: "We has met the enemy, and he is us." How much wisdom there was in…

To hear militant secularists tell the story, religion is bad for society's health. To hear social scientist Patrick F. Fagan tell it, that's plain bunk. On the basis of the facts, Fagan wins this argument hands down.

The long and the…

It has been five years since the story of clergy sex abuse and cover-up erupted in the pages of The Boston Globe and then spread like wildfire throughout the nation via other media. Despite everything that's been said since January, 2002,…

Time and again, the best part of a talk — for the speaker as well as the audience — is the question period. I was reminded of that again recently, the occasion being a talk I gave a few weeks…

Over the years the pro-life movement in the United States has become awkwardly impaled on the horns of a dilemma. On November 7, you might say the dilemma came home to roost.

Here's the problem. To advance its political agenda, the…

The overview's third date is June 15, 2002. As the bishops gathered in Dallas for their spring general meeting, disclosures of episcopal cover-up of sex abuse by priests — not only in Boston but in dioceses throughout the country —…

When 250 or so American bishops travel to Baltimore in mid-November for a sentimental journey into the Catholic past, they may find more comfort in looking back than looking ahead. But look ahead they must. Their national organization, the US…

Two unrelated incidents — the hunting accident involving Vice President Richard Cheney and the furor in the Muslim world over the Mohammed cartoons — both spotlight failures of the media that deserve examining.

I'm not a big Cheney fan. I…

“I'm sorry to tell you the Holy Father won't be able to receive us in audience,” the archbishop said.

For us attending a meeting at the Vatican last month, the announcement was an obvious letdown. But there was worse to come.…

(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)

Let me say it at the start and get it out of the way. I'm a registered Democrat who pretty much despaired of his party years ago. Abortion did it. As many others…

When told that India was the most religious country in the world and Sweden the most secularized, the eminent sociologist Peter Berger is said to have replied, “Then the United States must be a nation of Indians ruled by Swedes.”

The…

This Friday, February 27, the bishops of the United States either will seize a golden opportunity, take an unavoidable but profoundly risky step, or roll the dice and hope for the best. That's when findings of a survey of sex…

The United States often is said to be the most religious country in the West, but you’d have a hard time knowing it from the record of the Supreme Court. For half a century, the nation’s highest tribunal repeatedly has…

It was predictable that the homosexual lobby and its supporters in the media and political life would come down like a ton of bricks on Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) for having the audacity to speak the truth about homosexuality.

Probably the…