When I was in Rome last October covering the Synod on Synodality I had dinner with a rather well-known priest friend who is frequently, but mildly, critical of Pope Francis. I asked him why his critique of the Pope is not as harsh as some others who accuse this Pope of heresy. He responded by saying that...

Many years ago, a friend visiting an Eastern European country diligently wrote several postcards, stamped them, and then dropped them in what he thought was a mailbox. It turned out to be a very elegant trash can. Of course, his postcards never made it to their intended recipients. In the pro-life movement, messaging can often be like my friend’s simple mistake...

This week saw reports drawn from another book-length interview from Pope Francis, this time detailing the pope’s own recollections of conclave politics from 2005 and 2013. As the pope continues to discuss conclaves, past and future, attention is beginning to focus on the likely frontrunners to succeed him, whenever the day may come.

Belgium’s highest court ruled late last night that a conference upholding conservative values in the public square could go ahead in the country’s capital after a Brussels district mayor had ordered police to shut it down yesterday. Emir Kir issued the order to halt the National Conservatism conference that was scheduled to take place April 16-17...

It’s a good title, but it’s not mine. Instead, Catholicism Everywhere is a delightful new book from Sophia Institute Press, a coffee-table sort of book which highlights the Catholic origins of and contributions to just about every aspect of our lives from the calendar and health care, through food and fashion and gardening...

Greetings from Rome, where Ed and I have traveled for a few days of Pillar meetings. Well, actually, I got here this morning, and Ed will show up in a couple of hours. First, let me acknowledge that when Ed and I travel, The Pillar produces just a little bit less. For example, I’ve got two important news reports I had hoped to write while I was on airplanes yesterday...

In its more than 300 years of existence as a topographically challenged city pummelled by a holy trinity of natural disasters – fire, flood and pestilence – one sacred building less than 200 metres from the Mississippi River has framed the religious, cultural and political life of this oddest and most exotically Catholic of American cities: New Orleans.

Brussels police have been ordered to shut down a conference attended by right-wing politicians across Europe, including Nigel Farage and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.Organisers say the National Conservatism Conference in the Belgian capital is continuing, but guests are no longer allowed to enter.Local authorities had raised concerns over public safety.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel, says that He is the good shepherd the prophets had promised to Israel. He is the shepherd-prince, the new David—who frees people from bondage to sin and gathers them into one flock, the Church, under a new covenant, made in His blood. His flock includes other sheep, He says, far more than the dispersed children of Israel...

This is not a journal article that dates back to my Communicator on Culture days at Denver Seminary. This is an article from early in my life as an Orthodox Christian, when I was asked — by the publishing team with the Antiochian Christian Archdiocese — to explain to clergy and laypeople what I learned from teaching mass-communication subjects in a seminary.