When posthumous biographies are written about kings, movie stars, and great military leaders, the final chapters inevitably discuss how and when these persons died. But in the case of saints, to do this would fail to tell the whole story. Though the soul departed from the body, the saint may still have work to do on earth from the vantage point of eternal life.

Happily, across America (especially in the South) an increasing number of new Catholic churches, cathedrals and chapels are being built to more traditional designs that aim to inspire through beauty. Whenever I happen to meet our seminarians, I always make it a point to stress the importance of sacred art and architecture, because these are the men who will go into parishes and be charged with building new churches and chapels and renovating and restoring old ones...

One of the most famous and dramatic scenes in the entire Bible comes in Genesis 22 when God tells Abraham to take his son Isaac and sacrifice him in the land of Moriah. For Christians and non-Christians alike, the passage can feel challenging and perplexing. How could an all-loving God command a father to kill his innocent son? And what’s to stop God doing the same thing again in the future? To answer these questions, we need to look more carefully at what’s going on in the biblical text.

While in university, I would drink every Thursday night with Norm Peterson. Millions of people did, the Cheers character whose name everybody did know. When George Wendt, the actor who played Norm, died recently, people of a certain generation remembered a comfortable, if not inspiring, presence. Norm had a job he didn’t like (accounting) and a wife he avoided (Vera), but he did have friends in a neighborhood pub (Cheers) in Boston where everybody did know his name.

The biggest cheer that rises from St. Peter’s Square after the white smoke emanates from the makeshift chimney on the roof of the Sistine Chapel comes after the cardinal protodeacon announces, “Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: habemus papam” (“I announce to you the great joy: We have a pope”). Before anyone in the square knows the identity of the new pontiff, Catholics across the globe...

Young Catholics walking across the United States as part of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, faced protestors in Dallas Wednesday night, with pilgrimage organizers saying they expect to see protests continue as the group makes its way to Los Angeles.

Happy Friday, friends. We’ve had the usually busy week in the newsroom, and there’s plenty to get through. But before we get down to business, I was charmed this week by the picture of Pope Leo signing a baseball, as were a lot of you. I know because a lot of you told me so. And it is a great image, for a couple of reasons. At a basic emotional level, it’s just fun to see a pope doing something so fundamentally American...

Conclave 2025 was not, by historical standards, exceptionally short. But it was short. It was the third straight Conclave to conclude on its first full day. Is that a cause for concern? No one really knows except those who were in the Sistine Chapel. They are sworn to secrecy. Only Pope Leo XIV is completely free to ask them about their experience, and only the Holy Father can make any necessary modifications...

One of the most surprising things of my adult life has been to meet Christians who don’t drink alcohol. Such a position, frankly, boggles my mind. Indeed, “boggling” might be inaccurate, as I’m not even sure my mind can get to the stage of being boggled about this topic. It’s just so remote from my understanding of the world, such a view just bounces right off of my mind.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors hopes to deliver a “Universal Guidelines Framework for Safeguarding” to Pope Leo XIV later this year, the commission said. The guidelines “seek to inspire a true conversion of heart in every leader and pastoral agent in the church, ensuring that safeguarding becomes not merely a requirement, but a reflection of the Gospel’s call to protect the least among us,” the commission said in a press release...