By Auguste Meyrat The Catholic Church recently celebrated the feast of the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, in which "hundreds of British men and women died for their [Catholic] faith in wake of the dispute between the Pope and King Henry VIII during the 16th century," forty of whom were selected to represent people who made the mistake of contr…

By Brad Miner It's odd and wonderful that these things happen. I'm speaking of the discovery or re-discovery of paintings by great artists. In some cases, they are complete surprises (a masterwork previously unknown or, anyway, lost to history); in other cases, a work well-known, but misattributed. I've written previously here about two such occurr…

By Stephen P. White No one esteems a man for having lived an easy life. No one thinks more of a man for never having faced hardship, trials, or want. We pray that we might be spared such trials ourselves. We are grateful when those we love are spared such sufferings. But we do not admire them for it. There are certain kinds of ease - the ease that …

By Casey Chalk Almost twenty years ago, the ecumenical magazine First Things published an article by the great American theologian Cardinal Avery Dulles entitled "Who Can Be Saved?" After a history of Christian discussion of this question, the print edition of the article abruptly ended with the phrase "Who knows." In the full version, available on…

By Randall Smith I read an article recently by a professor who described how, years ago, she was expressing enthusiasm at an English Department meeting at her Jesuit university about a course on Catholic poetry that she had developed. She experienced some resistance. Finally, a senior member of the department "who seemed to be speaking for both him…

By Michele McAloon Born on the plains of Pannonia, in present-day Hungary, raised in Italy, and eventually becoming known in modern-day France as the apostle to the Gauls, Saint Martin of Tours (316 AD - 397 AD) left a legacy that spans the European continent. The name of the man who only ever wanted to be a holy hermit adorns many towns, schools, …

By Fr. Jeffrey Kirby In the Roman Canon of the Catholic Mass, we speak of "the catholic and apostolic faith." It is a faith grounded in the firm belief that the eternal Son of God became man and dwelt among us, and by His Passion, Death, and Resurrection ransomed us from Hell and opened for us the hope of eternal life in Him. And so, there is nothi…

By John M. Grondelski On November 5, The New York Times' headline proclaimed: "Victory Changes Nation's Sense of Self." Kamala Harris ran with the Democratic mantra of "American values" and insisted America's self-consciousness mirrors the party's radical woke agenda of abortion-on-demand-through-birth, pretending men are women and vice versa, and …

By Bishop James D. Conley Before Christianity came on the scene, ancient Greek and Roman pagans did not consider children to be fully human persons like adults. Indeed, it is not too strong to say that Christianity introduced the concept of children that we have today, in which we give children more concern than adults owing to their vulnerability.…

By Michael Pakaluk But first: God our Father, giver of life, we entrust the United States of America to your loving care. You are the rock on which this nation was founded. You alone are the true source of our cherished rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Reclaim this land for your glory and dwell among your people. Send your Spi…

By Francis X. Maier By the time this column is read, the 2024 election will be decided. Or nearly so. And since what I say will affect no one's vote, and I don't know the outcome as I write, I can be candid. Simply put: My wife, our youngest son (who lives with us), and I all voted on Tuesday against the Democratic Party ticket at every level. The …

By Anthony Esolen I am relieved to find that Pope Francis has refrained from saying that someday we may be conferring, or pretending to confer, Holy Orders upon women. It keeps alive the possibility that the churches East and West may reunite. It averts an inevitable and devastating schism. It allows the faithful to retain their trust that, as Sigr…

By Robert Royal A crucial presidential election takes place tomorrow. This site operates under tax-exempt, non-profit status, which does not permit us to engage in partisan politics - let alone endorse candidates. But we're The Catholic Thing and have the constitutional right to comment on Catholic things. There are several such things in play this…

By Fr. Brian A. Graebe "Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350" recently opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to glowing reviews. A collection of over 100 objects from around the world, the exhibition traces the emergence of Siena, a major stop along the Via Francigena connecting Rome to Canterbury, as a fulcrum of artistic innovation on the cu…

By Stephen P. White God, whose love is infinite, loves a finite number of people. He may love everyone, but the number is still finite. I read somewhere that the total number of human beings who have ever lived is estimated to be somewhere north of 100 billion. That's a lot of humans. How one estimates such a number is somewhat obscure to me, but i…

Christians, and particularly the Saints, have a record of flourishing under the least likely circumstances. The reader with even a passing acquaintance with Christian history will be familiar with this. They, and we, when we persist to victory, are undefeated even through defeat. For if God is for us, who can be against us? The faithful Christian w…

On this day, the 31st of October, All Hallows' Eve, many of our Protestant brothers and sisters celebrate Reformation Day - the momentous day in 1517 when the Augustinian friar Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The date always brings to mind my return to the Catholic Church some thirt…

But first a note: Be sure to tune in tomorrow night - Thursday, October 31st at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse - and the last for Synod Central - on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the conclusion of the second Synod on Synod…

I am not sad to be living abroad during this election season. The Atlantic may not be a complete buffer from all the silliness and vitriol swamping American democracy, but it's at least a filter. My diagnosis of our civic decadence is hardly original: the connection between the increasing dysfunction of American public life and a decline in religio…

The English poet John Keats spent the last years of his short life in Rome, wrote most of the handful of great poems that have made him famous in the Eternal City, died - and is buried - there. His tombstone in the Protestant Cemetery (in Italian, wonderfully called the Cimitero Acattolico, i.e. "A-Catholic" = Non-Catholic Cemetery) bears the inscr…

By Fr. Paul D. Scalia We hear very little about the people our Lord heals. That's not surprising. The miracles are to reveal and teach us about the Lord, not those He healed. So, when we hear about blind Bartimaeus in today's Gospel (Mark 10:46-52), we could easily pass over him as just another blessed recipient of Jesus' mercy. But he plays a bigg…

The flagship of the fleet, the Holy See Ship Synodality, is in dire straits (leaks about the final document that will be issued today suggest it will be, for those with radical hopes, a disappointment). HSS Synodality took a serious hit last December with the fiasco of Fiducia supplicans regarding the blessing of same-sex couples, and began listing…

Conclave, Edward Berger's new film, is based on the novel of that title by Robert Harris, which the movie mostly follows. The book has a curious beginning: the death of Pope Francis. Well, there's an author's note that ends with this disclaimer: "despite certain superficial resemblances. . .the late Holy Father depicted in Conclave [is not] meant t…

by Michael Pakaluk But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, October 24th at 8 PM Eastern - to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse - and for all of October, Synod Central - on 'The World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the ongoing second Synod…

Logicians have identified - and demolished - what they term a "circular argument." Basically, to propose an example, a circular argument goes something like this: The synodal Church is the Church foreseen by the Second Vatican Council. Why? Because the Second Vatican Council foresaw the synodal Church. In a circular argument, the conclusion is in t…