After years of hearing about it, I finally got around to reading the most famous work of the great British writer Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited. I wish I hadn’t waited. (For those who like to listen to books, an audio version is superbly performed by Jeremy Irons.) The novel tells the story of the romances, tragedies, and transformations of Charles Ryder. His family life is not exactly ideal...

Cities have always been rough places. When too many people are crowded together, there’s no telling what can go wrong: riots, vandalism and even murder. And when people with dearly held diverse views get in each other’s faces, sparks can fly — followed by fire. That’s especially true when those diverse views are religious in nature...

Pope Francis has begun the fourth and final leg of his 12-day Apostolic Journey in Asia and Oceania – the longest of his pontificate so far – which has taken him to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste.Now it’s time for the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore to welcome the Holy Father, who arrived at Changi Airport at 14.52 local time on Wednesday, 11 September.

One of the world’s most important newsrooms just offered a finely detailed profile of Catholic convert J.D. Vance and, imagine this, the feature focused on the emotions and ideas that led him to swim the Tiber. This included his intellectual and spiritual attraction to the work of St. Augustine, one of the most important minds in all of Western culture.

Pope Francis called on Catholics in Papua New Guinea on Saturday to continue in their efforts of bringing the Gospel to the most marginalized and remote communities within the country. During a visit to the Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians in Port Moresby on Sept. 7, the Pope addressed bishops, priests, deacons, seminarians and catechists from across Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The Maori people, the Indigenous population of mainland New Zealand, have crowned a new queen after the death of their king — and she’s Catholic.King Tuheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII died on Aug. 30 at the age of 69. His death came days after his 18th anniversary as king of the Kingitanga, also known as the Maori King Movement, founded in 1858 to unite the Maori under one sovereign. It is one of the longest-running political organizations in New Zealand.

Pope Francis on Sunday encouraged Catholics in a remote town in Papua New Guinea to continue to be missionaries where they live, working together to replace superstition and fear with love.After celebrating Mass in Port Moresby on Sept. 8, the pope traveled 620 miles by air to Vanimo, a coastal town on a peninsula in northwest Papua New Guinea close to the border with Papua, a province of Indonesia.

Could we all please agree to stop using the adjective “vibrant” to describe a Catholic parish, diocese, or other faith community? My desktop dictionary (admittedly an antique, Webster’s New Collegiate, published in 1974) defines “vibrant” as “oscillating or pulsating rapidly”—something that is ordinarily done by inanimate objects, not by human beings, let alone human communities...

Pope Francis’s pontificate has been, to put it mildly, controversial. His judgments—theological, administrative, and otherwise—have generally cheered those who seem to want the Catholic Church to resemble the liberal Protestant groups that are evaporating before our eyes. The ambiguity with which Francis has expressed many of these judgments has unleashed before us...

Jim Valois holds a B.A. in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. His articles and book reviews have been featured in The Wanderer Newspaper, Soul Magazine (World Apostolate of Fatima, USA), and Catholic Life Magazine. He is the author of Our Lady's Prophecies and reverted to the Catholic faith from Evangelicalism while studying at Franciscan University...