The Shepherd of Hermas is an inspiring combination of instructions for living the Christian life and an apocalyptic vision of the saved and the damned. At the most basic level, it is “an uncomplicated guide for repentance and moral living that will lead mankind to justification in the sight of God.” Using parables and allegories, the author instructs the early Church so that its members may lead lives pleasing to God.

I’ve told this story more times than I can count, and it never gets old. What happened changed my life in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I first crossed paths with Karl Keating in early 1987 after reading a short, unremarkable notice in our diocesan newspaper about a public debate on the papacy between Catholic attorney Karl Keating and one Bill Jackson...

Pope Leo XIV finished the third day of his apostolic journey to Turkey and Lebanon with a Mass at Volkswagen Arena, a soccer stadium in Istanbul's Maslak neighborhood.The Holy Father marked the day in part by joining Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I for a declaration pledging continued dialogue aimed at restoring full communion between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The two leaders also participated in a Doxology together.

Believers and non-believers alike sometimes balk at the demanding nature of St. Paul’s exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5: “Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” In a world as broken as ours, can we really be expected to rejoice and give thanks in all circumstances?

Jimmy Akin corrects popular Franciscan YouTuber Fr. Casey Cole’s claim that it’s “not appropriate” to pray privately after Communion and that EVERYONE must sing the Communion hymn. Jimmy goes through the argument line-by-line and exposes the claim as a classic “pious little legalism.” Jimmy quotes parts of the General Instruction that Fr. Casey never mentioned and reveals what Rome actually says about post-Communion prayer...

Our God is a God of surprises. From the Son of God being born a helpless infant raised by a carpenter and then dying to bring salvation, his ways are beyond human imagination. The humility of God is the ultimate plot twist that baffles Satan. The devil chose eternity in hell rather than to humble himself before the very one who created him. And his first big score against humanity was made possible through pride...

Tolerance is the pervasive, preeminent new moral virtue. Whatever others want to do is their choice — indeed, their right — and is to be accepted, even celebrated. Yet our society is quite narrow in its tolerance. For all its vaunted openness, the tolerance movement is riddled with ironies. Not everyone deserves to think his or her own way...

In the unity of faith, proclaimed since the beginning of the Church, Christians have been called to walk in harmony, guarding and transmitting the gift they have received with love and joy. This is expressed in the words of the Creed, “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God... for our salvation he came down from heaven,” that were formulated 1700 years ago by the Council of Nicaea, the first ecumenical gathering in the history of Christianity.

When Heather Vreeman’s husband called her from Greenville, South Carolina, where he was interviewing for a job, she was eager to hear what he thought of the area. “I think you are going to love it, and I think I found our church,” he told her. That church, St. Mary’s in downtown Greenville, wasn’t the reason they moved from San Diego...

Pope Leo XIV called for renewed commitment to ecumenism among Christian denominations on Sunday, urging all Christians and their leaders to deepen their communion in the commonly confessed tenets of the faith. In an apostolic letter released ahead of a papal trip to Nicea — during which Leo will join the Patriarch of Constantinople to mark the 1700th anniversary of the ecumenical council...