Fifteen years ago, in 1999, Pope St. John Paul II declared that the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe would be celebrated in every Church in the Americas, because, he said, she is the Patroness, the Evangelizer, and the Mother of the Americas. John Paul said that through her intercession, the new evangelization in America…
In the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, directly over the very spot where our Lord’s Cross stood, right where our Savior died for our salvation, there stands a Greek altar. Directly next to it stands a Latin altar. In between the two altars hangs an icon of the Mother of God. Right at…
Scientists say that diamonds need more than 350 tons of pressure per square inch and heat levels above 2200 degrees Fahrenheit to form within the earth. And since we know that God’s own inner order and life imprint themselves on all of creation, this simple scientific fact has something to teach us about spiritual reality. …
CNA—It is important to consider what we are willing to die for, Archbishop Charles Chaput reminded students and faculty in a speech at the University of Notre Dame on Friday. “It’s a good thing, a vital thing, to consider what we’re willing to die for,” Chaput said in a lecture given to the Constitutional Studies…
As we approach October, the month of the Holy Rosary, we remember and rededicate ourselves to the simple request of Our Lady at Fatima that the whole world recite the Rosary daily for peace in the family and in the world. We may be personally aware of the life-changing power of this prayer in our…
Archbishop Chaput delivered the following keynote remarks on September 12, 2019 during the seventh annual St. Joseph the Worker Medal Awards at Malvern Retreat House— I don’t have any illusions about earning the award you’ve given me tonight. But I’m very glad to be here, because it gives me a chance to join in honoring…
CNA—St. John Paul II’s encyclical Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) will mark its 21st anniversary this year, on Sept. 14. Last year, Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia reflected on this encyclical in his essay “Believe that you may Understand” that appeared in the March 2018 issue of First Things. It is worth revisiting this…
Exactly 20 years ago, in U.S. Senate testimony just weeks after the Columbine High School massacre, I offered these thoughts: The real problem [of Columbine-like violence in our culture] is in here, in us . . . In the last four decades we’ve created a culture that markets violence in dozens of different ways, seven…
On July 25th, the Church celebrated the Feast of St. James the Apostle, whose journey from fisherman to evangelist should inspire and encourage us all. Imagine that you are at work sitting at your desk, giving a presentation, or doing some manual labor and a man that you’ve admired and heard about approaches you and…
Speaking at the University of Notre Dame in October 2016, just a few weeks before a national election that seemed sure to put a second Clinton in the White House, I noted that [Q]uite a few of us American Catholics have worked our way into a leadership class that the rest of the country both…
On January 18, 2019, a video of Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann went viral. He was at the Lincoln Memorial standing face to face with a Native American man during the March to Life in Washington, D.C. On the basis of that picture, a frenzy of condemnations from reporters, commentators and politicians were…
Prayer should not be seen simply as a good deed done by us to God, our own action. It is, above all, a gift, the fruit of the living presence, the life-giving presence of the Father and of Jesus Christ in us. And we know how true it is when the Apostle [Paul] says: “we…
CNA—Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia called for broad participation in a pro-life rally this week, scheduled in response to a Penslyvania state representative’s livestreamed harassment of a woman praying outside of a Planned Parenthood clinic. “These videos, which Representative Sims took himself, have rightly sparked broad outrage … His actions were unbecoming of an elected…
In February 1915, only six months after the beginning of World War I, Lancet, a British medical journal, used for the first time the expression “shell shock.” This newly coined expression was used to describe the feeling of helplessness that soldiers felt after exposure to constant bombardment. The term was new, but not the reality.…
CNA—Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix did not mince words when he called on a gathering of the nation’s Catholic leaders to stand up to the heresies of the modern age by defending the dignity of the human person, body and soul, as an integral part of defending the faith. Speaking at the National Catholic Prayer…
CNA—The following is a previously unpublished essay from Pope emeritus Benedict XVI: On February 21 to 24, at the invitation of Pope Francis, the presidents of the world’s bishops’ conferences gathered at the Vatican to discuss the current crisis of the faith and of the Church; a crisis experienced throughout the world after shocking revelations of…
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, the president of the US Bishops’ Conference, shared his shock and sadness over the Notre Dame blaze, calling the cathedral “a world treasure.” In a statement to the people of Paris, DiNardo said the cathedral has “long been a symbol of the transcendent human spirit as well as our longing for God.”…
Sermon for the Salutations to the Holy Cross with His Eminence, Metropolitan GerasimosHoly Cross Greek Orthodox Church—April 4, 2019—This past January, during a visit to Rome and other parts of Europe, I had a rare and truly privileged opportunity that I will never forget for the rest of my life: a face-to-face encounter with Jesus…
On February 18, 2019, Bishop Borys Gudziak was appointed by Pope Francis as the Metropolitan and Archbishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia. A native of the U.S., for the last six years, Bishop Borys served as eparch of the Eparchy of St. Volodymyr in Paris, serving the Ukrainian Greek Catholic faithful in France,…
CNA—Newly appointed Archbishop Wilton Gregory made an uncompromising commitment to transparency during his introduction to the faithful of Washington, DC, at a press conference Thursday. “First of all, I believe that the only way I can serve this local archdiocese is by telling you the truth,” said Gregory at his formal introduction as the next…
