Reflections on life, meaning and purpose

The Martyrs of Compiègne sang all the way to the guillotine…

On January 26, 1957, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan was the site of a new opera by noted French Catholic composer Francis Poulenc. Dialogues des Carmélites (Dialogues of the Carmelites) was based in part on a screenplay written by the Catholic writer Georges Bernanos and inspired by Gertrud von le Fort’s German novella, Die […]

My Word Shall Not Return to Me Empty…

What do you expect to happen as a result of reading and hearing God’s Word? Do you expect to encounter something that will change you? The response of most people is pretty tepid and uninspired. Most don’t really expect much nor have they ever. For them, reading or hearing God’s Word is more of a […]

Cardinal Zuppi traveling to Washington to promote peace in Ukraine

President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi (center) attends the consistory for the creation of new cardinals at St. Peter’s Basilica on Aug. 27, 2022, in Vatican City. / Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images Rome Newsroom, Jul 17, 2023 / 05:25 am (CNA). Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the Italian prelate tasked by Pope […]

Patriarch Sako announces move to Kurdistan

The announcement follows the decision by Iraq’s president, Abdul Latif Rashid, to revoke a 2013 decree recognising the Cardinal as Patriarch of the Chaldean Church. Read all  

Keeping the “C” in the YMCA

The Young Men’s Christian Association was birthed in the factories of nineteenth-century London. It then spread around the globe to become one of history’s most successful parachurch movements. Today, there are over 14,000 locations, but “the Y” is probably better known in America for its physical fitness facilities and a campy song than for its […]

New Vatican doctrinal chief Cardinal Fernández defends book he wrote about kissing

Three decades ago, the man named by Pope Francis to be the Catholic Church’s new guardian of doctrinal orthodoxy wrote a short book about kissing and the sensations it evokes. Some conservatives are using the volume to criticize the appointment of Cardinal-designate Victor Manuel Fernández to lead the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.