In this centenary year of the establishment of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, it is both my responsibility and my pleasure to share some reflections that I consider important for the Church in our present time. I do so with a grateful heart, knowing that when our memory of the past is illuminated by faith and purified by charity, it nourishes hope...

When Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to the peasant Juan Diego in 1531, Mesoamerica stood at a crossroads. The Aztec Empire had fallen, yet the religious imagination it shaped remained formidable. Centuries of human sacrifice soaked the land and the collective memory. Atop their temples, Aztec priests tore the still-beating hearts from countless victims, lifting them to feed the sun...

On the centenary of the founding of the Pontifical Institute of Christian Archaeology, Pope Leo XIV published a new apostolic letter in which he praised Christian archaeology as a work capable of “giving a voice to the silence of history” and of “bringing to light the anonymous holiness of many faithful who have contributed to building up the Church.”

In this episode of the Upstream Podcast, Father John Riccardo and I explore a fundamental shift in how church leaders can view and use volunteers, emphasizing that the church is the Body of Christ and not a corporation. The biggest challenges are rooted in low expectations, treating volunteers generically, and creating...

I am back in Washington after our first-ever Pillar Pilgrimage to Rome. It was, honestly, a time of great consolation for me. The first weeks of Advent are meant, as we all know, to lift our eyes a little higher to the horizon of the end of time and the coming of the Lord in glory. As someone perpetually preoccupied with the immediate, it was an immense gift to be “forced,” in a way, to set the quotidian concerns of the day’s news aside — at least a bit — and be reminded that there is a Good News much more important for me to both give and receive.

More than 30 years after its release, ‘Home Alone’ remains cherished as pure Christmas fun: slapstick booby traps, a wisecracking 8-year-old, and two burglars who refuse to quit despite the bodily harm they sustain along the way. Yet woven into the movie’s charm are quieter religious undertones that give the film its emotional depth — and that depth is no accident.

Catholic leaders in Australia have responded with prayer and condemnation of antisemitism following what police described as a terrorist attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday that left 12 people dead and 29 others injured.

I work with priests and bishops from all around the country, so I am blessed to have conversations that the average lay person doesn’t get. In fact, since I am no longer an institutional insider (since I work for our apostolate now), I am considered “safe” to talk to and therefore, I get to hear what is really happening with them. They ask for advice...

On Gaudete Sunday, we have another reason to rejoice this year: 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of St. Paul VI’s apostolic exhortation on Christian joy, Gaudete in Domino (“Rejoice in the Lord always”) from Philippians 4:4, the same expression from which the Third Sunday of Advent gets its nickname. While we sing of joy throughout the Advent season...

St. John the Baptist, despite his continued imprisonment, had heard about the works Jesus was doing and sent two of his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?” John was no pushover, not some reed swayed by the wind, but from this question we can gather that while John sat in Herod’s prison some doubt arose about whether Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah...