At the start of an Aug. 23 Catholic wedding in St. Paul, Minnesota, all eyes turned to the back of the church for that iconic moment: the bride’s procession down the aisle with her father, before he hands her off to her husband-to-be. Except when the back doors of St. Mary’s Church opened for the big reveal, Liz Holman wasn’t standing with her dad...

Suffocation awaited a young man with Down syndrome when the eroded surface of a toxic sewage tank crumbled beneath his feet. Joseph Vander Woude would have died alone in the cramped tank surrounded by toxic fumes, but his father jumped in, pushing him toward the surface with his last breath. Even as his lungs filled with toxic gases, Tom called out to the farmhand who was trying to pull Joseph out. “You pull, I’ll push,” he said.

esus says, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Humility is a virtue that avoids arrogant self-estimation. Integral prayer helps us to know our limitations. The Gospel reveals Jesus’ ceaseless prayers to the Father. Jesus is meek and humble of heart. Our prayer affirms that we depend upon God. God is God, and we are his servants. He loves us. We’re smart, but not as smart as we think we are. When we recognize our limitations before God and others, we paradoxically discover our freedom.

There’s always going to be someone who insists that the best pizza they’ve ever had was actually at a Super Mario-themed sleepover they had when they were eight. And while we don’t want to desecrate anyone’s childhood memories, we will also gently push back on that idea. Everyone here’s old enough to admit that some combinations of sauce, cheese, and bread are—in fact—objectively better than others. (And if you’re still eight, congratulations on reading above grade-level right now.)

Whether there’s confetti falling from your team’s last title or you’re still waiting to see your first, you probably have an idea of how satisfied – or miserable – you are as a fan. But could you put a number on it?

The Confessions is a peculiar work. Every time you try to say what it is, it seems to escape your categorization. People most readily characterize it as an autobiography. True, maybe, if you are used to teaching only Books 1-10. But then there are those awkward last three books. What are they doing there? They each take up in their turn verses from the Hexameron, the narrative of the six days of creation in Genesis 1:1-2:1. Looking backward from these books...

As Israeli military operations in Gaza continued, Pope Leo XIV met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican. The meeting Sept. 4 came just a week after Pope Leo appealed again for Israel and Hamas to stop the violence and for Hamas to release the hostages it has held since attacking Israel in October 2023. With the pope and with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, Herzog discussed “the political and social situation in the Middle East ... where numerous conflicts persist, with particular attention to the tragic situation in Gaza,” the Vatican said.

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday appointed Fr. Raffaele De Angelis as Eparch of Piana degli Albanesi of the Italo-Albanian Catholic Church, located in Sicily. The appointment comes after a five-year vacancy in the see. In February 2020, the last eparch, Bishop Giorgio Demetrio Gallaro, was appointed as secretary of the then-Congregation for Eastern Churches. De Angelis, born in 1979, was ordained a priest of the Eparchy of Lungro in 2006 after studies at the Gregorian University, obtaining a doctorate in moral theology.

When confronted with the opportunity to forgive someone, would you? Some may say that it depends on the gravity of the act or circumstance. Others may argue that it depends on the person's disposition. The spiritual and carnal drama involved in offering forgiveness to someone can be a burden when the person hurt is someone you love, like your wife, husband, child, relative, or close friend. Even more, when the act is heinous or violent in nature, it results in psychological, emotional, or spiritual drama...

Like a king making ready for battle or a contractor about to build a tower, we have to count the cost as we set out to follow Jesus. Our Lord today is telling us up front the sacrifice it will take. His words aren’t addressed to His chosen few, the Twelve, but rather to the “great crowds”—to anyone, to whoever wishes to be His disciple. That only makes His call all the more stark and uncompromising. We are to “hate” our old lives, to renounce all the earthly things we rely upon...