The philosopher Dr. Sebastian Ostritsch was scheduled to give a lecture entitled “Is God’s Existence a Matter of Rational Understanding? Thomas Aquinas vs. Immanuel Kant” at the Jesuits’ Munich School of Philosophy on November 27, 2025. But after protesting students took to social media, university officials canceled his lecture. The students had threatened to disrupt the lecture, reminded everyone about what happened to Charlie Kirk...

Pope Leo XIV warned of the risks that go hand in hand with information in the digital age and urged journalists never to succumb “to the temptation of the trivial” or to fake news that creates confusion about what’s true or false. The pope made his comments in a message sent on the occasion of the 30th anniversary...

Before we get on to the news, I would like to pause for a moment and ask you to please offer a prayer for the repose of the soul of John Allen Jr., who died yesterday at the age of 61. John, for any readers who do not know, and I doubt there can be many, was — for decades — an inescapable presence in the world of Catholic media, and especially in the arena of Vatican reporting.

The first attendees have arrived at the March for Life. Despite the cold temperatures, these students from John Paul the Great University are looking forward to marching in support of the unborn. This is the school’s first time attending the annual march.

Friends, colleagues, and regular Crux readers will know that my husband, John L. Allen Jr., has been battling cancer for some time, and has largely been absent from the site this year as he underwent treatment and fought for recovery.It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I convey, nearly four years after his diagnosis, that John lost his battle with cancer on Thursday, January 22, 2026, and is now resting in the arms of God, free from the pain and discomfort that he lived with for so long.

John L. Allen Jr. died on January 22, 2026, after a lengthy battle with cancer. The legendary Vatican beat reporter and Church affairs analyst was 61 years old. He is survived by his wife, Elise Ann Allen, who is Crux’s senior Rome correspondent. Allen was a force of nature, certainly as a journalist who was not only our principal but also a model for us, whose counsel and whose company we already and forever shall sorely miss.

My friend arrived at our local place about half an hour after the Texans-Steelers game ended. People had already run through the five stages of grief, I told her, and gotten to the final stage, acceptance. “I got to acceptance on week one,” she said. Everyone who’d actually watched the game there began it feeling hopeful. But eventually we all saw the Steelers’ reality, and what I suspect most people secretly thought would happen happened.

In this episode Trent shows how one claim about Jesus' historical status backfires on Christians...

Pope Francis convened his last consistory on October 6, 2024. Two months later, the Pope announced the list of those who would become cardinals. Among them was this name...

Archbishop Nikola Eterović celebrated his milestone birthday Jan. 20, days after a private audience with Pope Leo XIV. The Vatican disclosed no information about the Jan. 17 audience, other than that it took place. But it would be surprising if the topic of Eterović’s eventual successor did not come up. The succession in Germany may not be the only diplomatic appointment on Pope Leo’s mind...