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Articles
No, Junior, the Catholic Church is not the Same as ISIS
A seventh-grader recently asked me how to respond to his peer’s obstinate claim that he and the rest of his Catholic co-religionists are just as bad as ISIS. After...
Between the Capitals of the World
Today, I took my last train ride to Grand Central Terminal, on my way to the New York offices of First Things, which has been kind enough to host...
On Roman Holy Days
A pious tradition holds that St. Helena discovered relics of the original cross of Christ during a fourth century pilgrimage to Jerusalem that Christians would commemorate later with the...
Mother Teresa’s Inspiration Day and Ours
St. Teresa of Kolkata was canonized on September 4; her feast day came one day later. Mother Teresa died of heart complications on September 5, 1997, and the Church...
Dottore della Chiesa subito!
When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s book-length final interview—Last Testament: In His Own Words—is released in November, we will receive the retired pontiff’s final addition to his vast written corpus....
Lectio Divina and the Facebook Newsfeed
Puppies bounding through a field, a jubilant wedding, a new round of beheadings in the Middle East, homemade tacos al pastor, an Olympics triumph over adversity. As my thumb...
The Nones and the Buffered Self
I recently chatted with a professional photographer outside the historic Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral. She was not Catholic, but she confessed an almost obsessive passion for church...
The Digital Triptych
A millennial recently bragged to my friend that he no longer has much reason to leave the comfort of his basement office. There, he enjoys a tri-screen computer setup...
Dressing for Others
A young woman asked whether the seat next to me in the Amtrak car was taken. I responded “no” and we began a bit of smalltalk. We shared an...
Cardinal Sarah’s Liberal Liturgical Vision
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments Cardinal Robert Sarah recently called priests to a more liberal outlook on liturgical practice, in which...
What Men Who Left Seminary Taught Me about Women’s Ordination
Now that Pope Francis and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith have assembled a commission to investigate the possibility of ordaining women deacons in the Catholic Church,...
The Danish Girl: Transgender Apologetic, or Rebuttal?
Tom Hooper’s Oscar-winning film The Danish Girl (2015) dramatizes Einar Wegener’s journey toward self-fulfillment as Lili Elbe. The big-screen depiction of one of the first modern “sex-change” surgeries, in...
