George Cardinal Pell

There probably will never be a consensus on Vatican II and its legacy: to what extent it channeled the Holy Spirit, and how much its implementation was hijacked by the world, the flesh, and the devil. But all those who read George Weigel’s fine new book, whatever their points of view, will find . . . . Continue Reading »

When divergent claims regarding Catholic doctrine arise, it is essential to look to Holy Scripture for the answers. Continue Reading »

Democracy and religious freedom can only be defended by determined citizens who recognize the issues and have the political will to act. Continue Reading »

In 1972, I took part in a Christian panel addressing senior students at a government high school in rural Australia. Afterward, a student approached me to discuss our Catholic claims. He was an unbeliever who was also seeking answers from a small Protestant group. I lost out when I explained that . . . . Continue Reading »

There is a lot of goodness in prisons. At times, I am sure, prisons may be hell on earth. I was fortunate to be kept safe and treated well. I was impressed by the professionalism of the warders, the faith of the prisoners, and the existence of a moral sense even in the darkest places. I was in . . . . Continue Reading »

Benedict XVI: An Intimate Portrait by peter seewald ignatius, 260 pages, $24.95 When Peter Seewald published a book-length interview with Cardinal Ratzinger in 1996, it was met with silence by the German intellectual and theological establishment. As a former editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine . . . . Continue Reading »

Some secularists seem to like one-way streets. Their distaste for Christianity leads them to seek to drive it not only from the public square but even from any provision of education, health care, and welfare services. Ironically, intolerance of Christianity and Christian culture is proclaimed most . . . . Continue Reading »

Can Islam and the Western democracies live together peacefully? Optimists seize on the assurance of specialists that jihad is primarily a matter of spiritual striving and that the extension of this concept to terrorism is a distortion of koranic teaching. They emphasize Islam’s self-description . . . . Continue Reading »

Part of the pleasure in reading John Henry Newman is the huge range of topics he covered and the variety of styles he brought to them. As well as the great philosophical and theological treatises, he left us sermons, essays, poems, letters—a vast treasury that makes anything like systematic . . . . Continue Reading »