Every now and then, when I have trouble choosing a topic for commentary, I consult the CatholicCulture archives, to see what I was writing five or ten or fifteen years ago around this time of year. So it was that today I found a piece that I had written in October 2017: The crisis of pastoral leadership. That article, in turn, was prompted by a message from a friend, a priest in a relatively strong American diocese, who complained about the sort of directives he received from the chancery.

In Mark 9, we hear about a man unaffiliated with the disciples who casts out demons in Jesus’s name. This same episode is also recorded in Luke 9:49-50, while St. Matthew’s Gospel includes a variation on the warning Jesus delivers to His disciples: “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters.” For Catholic readers of the Gospels, the exorcist passage raises some interesting questions...

Following the Mass for the Jubilee of Marian Spirituality, Pope Leo XIV turns his thoughts and prayers to the suffering people of the Holy Land, of Ukraine, and of Peru, where political turmoil has brought instability to the nation.

The “Mother of Parliaments” — that’s the one in London — has been embroiled for months in a debate over “assisted dying,” which is euphemized elsewhere under other Orwellian monikers: “Medical Assistance in Dying,” “Physician Assisted Suicide,” “Physician Assisted Dying,” and so forth. The bill legalizing this odious practice narrowly passed the House of Commons on June 20 and has been subsequently debated in the House of Lords. Further parliamentary procedures may delay a final decision until next April or May; the parliamentary clock may even run out on the bill, which would be all to the good.

Jesus draws a blunt picture in today’s Gospel. The Pharisee’s prayer is almost a parody of the thanksgiving psalms. Instead of praising God for His mighty works, the Pharisee congratulates himself for his own deeds, which he presents to God in some detail. The tax collector stands at a distance, too ashamed even to raise his eyes to God. He prays with a humble and contrite heart. He knows that before God no one is righteous, no one has cause to boast...

It can be understood with a sincerity of mind and heart that the purpose of education is to prepare the student to engage life. The entire educational establishment, based on a Judeo-Christian ethos, would focus on the spiritual and educational transformation of the student to help him respond to truth, beauty, and goodness. This premise presupposes that the educator views the student as a child of God...

Classical K-12 education has a mind-heart problem. We know and love C. S. Lewis’s “Men without Chests,” and we find his analysis of the culture of British intelligentsia circa 1948 to be compelling. We laugh at the fatuous “sophistication” of the intellectual pygmies responsible for the Green Book; we chuckle at the mental picture of their tiny, anemic bodies attached to their oversized...

One of my family’s prized possessions is an Amish-made table fashioned from solid cherry wood, a souvenir from the decade we lived in the Amish country of northeast Ohio. It’s a thing of real beauty: The hand that made it was sure of its own skill. We loved that table so much we ordered a bedroom set from the same maker. When it was delivered...

The Church, by her apostolic authority, established “the Lord’s Day” to be Sunday, according to Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, and Revelation 1:10 (see also CCC 2175-2179). This is the spiritual fulfillment of the Sabbath and is binding on Christians. But does this contradict Romans 14:5? Absolutely not! Again, that is not what Paul was talking about.

For the first time in nearly 2,000 years, visitors to Rome’s world-renowned Colosseum will have the opportunity to walk through a hidden imperial passage that once allowed Roman emperors to reach the ancient amphitheater unseen.