As we mark the 20th anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s death and birth into eternal life on April 2, it’s key to focus on the most important lessons of his life. His legacy is monumental, inside and outside the Catholic Church — one of the reasons why many think he should be officially named John Paul “the Great,” alongside Leo the Great (440-461), Gregory the Great (590-604) and Nicholas the Great (850-867).

The Catholic Church is prudently patient in awarding the title “Doctor of the Church” to her greatest teachers. However luminous someone’s explication of the truths of the Catholic faith may seem in his or her time, the efficacy of that teaching can only be tested over generations, sometimes centuries. This is particularly true of the saints who stretched the Church’s understanding, discomfiting some in the process.

St. Pope John Paul II passed away 20 years ago this April 2. Serving him between 1989 and 2005, first as his bodyguard and then as an adviser to the Holy See, was such a privilege. It was such a grace to know the Holy Father and be near him, that I feel duty-bound to share my experiences with others. Papa Wojtyla was a great leader—a global leader—and not solely for Catholics...

Some popular devotions arise as a substitute for something else. The scapular is a cut-down habit. The rosary is a simplified Psalter. The Hours of Our Lady is a smaller Liturgy of the Hours. And the Way of the Cross is a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The idea that the Stations of the Cross developed as European versions of a Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem when pilgrims could no longer safely travel due to the crusades it not quite right...

Is it a sin to follow the news? Or to read commentators upon the news? Or to listen to podcasts that comment upon the commentators? Or to watch the YouTube videos of those picking apart the podcasts? It’s Lent, the season for more than the usual number of Confessions. And this Lent, as has increasingly been the case over the last half-dozen years or so, more and more penitents are confessing that they are following the news.

When Cardinal McElroy denounced President Donald Trump’s immigration policies at a conference on “Catholic Teaching and Work with Migrants”, he made a particularly awkward statement. He said that we have a choice between treating those at the borders with dignity and launching “a crusade which comes from the darkest parts of our American psyche and soul and history.” Perhaps Cardinal McElroy has forgotten that the word “crusade” refers literally to an endeavor that is “marked by the cross”.

Pope Francis on Monday appointed Bishop Michael McGovern of Belleville, Illinois, to lead the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska, after he accepted the resignation of Omaha Archbishop George Lucas.McGovern, 60, has led the Diocese of Belleville since April 2020. The Chicago native will be installed as archbishop of Omaha in the Cathedral of St. Cecilia on May 7.

Pope Francis on Sunday encouraged Christians to continue their Lenten journey as a time of healing and faith in Jesus Christ. The Vatican released the Holy Father’s Sunday Angelus message while the 88-year-old pontiff continues his convalescence in his Casa Santa Marta home after being discharged from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital a week ago.

In the movie The Man with Two Brains, Steve Martin plays a widower who is considering getting remarried. His beautiful but greedy girlfriend Dolores artfully conceals her cruelty. One day, Martin stands before a portrait of his dead wife, Rebecca, and begs, “Rebecca, if there is anything wrong with my feelings for Dolores, just give me a sign.” Immediately, lights blink, winds whip, and an earthquake erupts...

The apostolic nunciature in El Salvador issued a correction for the irregularities that occurred March 24 during a Mass marking the 45th anniversary of the assassination of St. Oscar Romero, who served as archbishop of San Salvador during that country’s civil war.