Illinois Senator Dick Durbin declined on Tuesday a lifetime achievement award he was scheduled to receive from the Archdiocese of Chicago’s office of human dignity and solidarity. Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich issued an announcement on the subject at the same time senior leaders at the U.S. bishops’ conference were confidentially preparing to release a statement on the Durbin award, and had already informed the Vatican’s U.S. representative of their plans, according to several sources close to the process.

Pope Leo XIV responded to controversy over the Chicago cardinal’s plans to honor a Catholic U.S. senator who supports legalized abortion, saying that the senator’s record should be considered in its totality and that Americans should search together for the truth on ethical issues.

Bishop John Arnold of Salford has condemned a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue during Yom Kippur, calling for solidarity and prayer with the Jewish community. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales released Arnold’s statement on Thursday following the morning assault at Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue, where a knife-wielding assailant reportedly struck worshippers gathered for prayer.

Recently, my wife and I watched a documentary with our children on texting and driving, From One Second To The Next. I include it below. It detailed the heart-wrenching stories of people whose lives were turned upside down by one person’s decision to text while driving. It withered any temptations I have to text while I drive. But let me say this: It is frighteningly easy to rationalize texting and driving...

The haunting story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31) is perhaps best understood in reverse, through the lens of where we find them at the end of the story. The status of each in the afterlife – the rich man’s suffering and Lazarus’s peace – reveals the reality of who they are. Without the trappings and clothing and disguising of this world, we see the rich man’s poverty and Lazarus’s wealth. We see most keenly the peril of riches...

Chesterton once said that there are two ways of getting home. One of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place. Since the Church is our true home, we could say that the first is a good description of a cradle Catholic, the second of a revert like me. But there is a third way of getting home: to discover it for the first time...

The world tells you that dependence is weakness, but it's actually what makes us human. The truth is, you can’t live without being dependent. From the moment we’re born to the moment we die, we’re relying on other people. And that’s okay! In fact, it’s the way God intended. In this episode of The Chris Stefanick Show, I sit down with Catholic writer Leah Libresco Sargeant, to discuss her new book "The Dignity of Dependence: A Feminist Manifesto." Leah challenges the lie...

I was surprised recently when the algorithm gods pointed me — after I spent several days watching news and commentary about the Charlie Kirk assassination — to a new tribute song in honor of the Turning Point USA leader. Okay, I wasn’t expecting Lady Gaga to release something like “Goodbye My Friend (A Tribute To Charlie Kirk).” But this wasn’t a tribute to Kirk, it was actually Lady Gaga’s heartfelt farewell to the great singer Tony Bennett...

Israel has warned residents in Gaza to flee or become military targets. Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz said in a post on X at 8:07 a.m. ET, Oct. 1, that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had surrounded Gaza City. Anyone leaving southward will be “required to pass through the IDF’s inspection checkpoints,” Katz warned, adding: “This is the last opportunity for Gaza residents who wish to do so to move south and leave Hamas terrorists isolated in Gaza City itself, facing the IDF’s ongoing operations at full force. Those who remain in Gaza will be considered terrorists and terror supporters.”

For those unfamiliar with Ernest Shackleton, he has been called “the greatest leader of men.” After his ship — fittingly named Endurance — became trapped and destroyed by pack ice, he and his men spent nearly two years living on ice floes and small boats at the most desolate place on Earth. Shackleton fully realized that losing his nerve for one moment would inevitably result in the death of all 27 of his men...