Only a few minutes separated President James A. Garfield from the beginning of his summer break from the business of the White House. Starting from the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Station on the morning of Saturday, July 2, 1881, he planned to retreat to his farm in Mentor, Ohio. But first, the president needed to attend his 25th-year reunion at Williams College...

As much as I enjoy and look forward to the annual Christmas break, by the end I am genuinely eager to get back into the ordinary swing of things. Indeed, this Sunday closes the liturgical season with the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, after which we find ourselves once again in Ordinary Time, an easily misunderstood season and one which I try to give its proper due every January.

The Holy See is expected to announce in coming weeks a date for the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, the Emmy-winning American prelate known for catechetical television programs in the 1950s and 1960s. Sheen, who came within three weeks of a scheduled beatification in 2019, is expected to be formally beatified in September, according to sources close to the process...

When most people think about where God is, they look to the sky or point to a mountaintop. God is ON HIGH. But the reality of the incarnation flips that vision upside down. Christ dwelt among us. God came to the lowest of places to meet us in our brokenness and heal our sin. Did you know the spot where Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River is literally one of the lowest places on earth? That can't be an accident...

Pope Leo XIV delivered his first annual address to the Vatican diplomatic corps on Jan. 9, setting out his diplomatic priorities for the year. The address, traditionally given at the start of the year, is often described as a papal “state of the world” speech. This year’s speech carried particular weight...

Many Catholics who have been personally impacted, or deeply unsettled, by the “liturgy wars” dividing our Church are understandably disappointed that liturgical matters were not, in the end, discussed during Pope Leo XIV’s now-concluded meeting with the College of Cardinals in Rome.

Carrying on a 45-year-old tradition, Pope Leo XIV baptized 20 children of Vatican employees in the Sistine Chapel. Following in the footsteps of his predecessors, the administration of the Sacrament took place during a Mass on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

“Christ is baptized ... in the Jordan!” So rang out the liturgy on Jan. 6 ... at the Canadian Museum of History. Both the place and the time would have surprised most (Latin-rite) Catholics in Canada. But not Ukrainian Catholics, who have their own distinctive calendar. And local Ukrainian Catholics in Ottawa know that once a year for “Theophany” (“Epiphany”), their Divine Liturgy is celebrated at the museum...

The Christmas season is officially over this Sunday on the The Baptism of the Lord (Year A). In our house, that means the decorations come down (see this special prayer). The house goes from glistening with beauty and mystery to an ordinary-looking home again. The good news is that Christmas, with its the grace and wonder, won’t go away; it will just move deeper inside, down in the basement of the house, and into the hearts of the family. That’s what baptism does...

Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado at the Vatican on Monday in an audience that was not initially included in the official schedule for the day. The meeting was added to the pontiff’s agenda in the Holy See’s noon news bulletin. The Vatican has not released any details about the audience.