Worship

In Catholic argot, the various rites and rituals of the Church are known as “liturgies,” from the ancient Greek term leitourgia, meaning “work,” referring to the public work of the state done on behalf of the people. The term was used in Greco-Roman...

The Life Of The Mind

Despite stereotypes depicting religious folk as hostile to critical thought, most Catholics actually think a fair bit about their faith. Every day, future priests and lay people show up at seminaries and universities to study Catholic teaching, while countless others take part in small study...

Catholicism And Sex

From the beginning, Catholicism has been accused of broadcasting mixed messages about sex. On the one hand, the great heroes of the faith have typically been asexual virgins. St. Simon Stylites, for instance, was a fifth-century ascetic in Syria who sought refuge atop a pillar,...

Angels, Demons, And Saints

Ironically, there’s a sense in which potboiler novels such as Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and movies such as The Exorcist actually do a better job depicting the Catholic Church than most of the learned commentary one finds in venues such...

The Catholic Church 101

Close your eyes and try to imagine a “typical” Catholic. If you’re like most people, you’ll probably picture a white priest or bishop, somewhere in the Western world—Rome, maybe. When Hollywood wants to depict the Church, that’s what the central casting office usually dials up....

Catholicism And Money

Of all the jabs people sometimes take at Roman Catholicism, none is easier to deliver than pointing out the stark contrast between the wealth of the Church today and the poverty of its founder. Christians believe Jesus Christ is the all-powerful Son of God, yet...

Pope Francis

When you’re talking about an institution with more than 2,000 years of history, it’s not often that the term “unprecedented” applies. As Cardinal Francis George of Chicago famously said, “In the Church, everything’s happened at least once.” Yet the drama of the first half of...

Crisis And Scandal

If a management guru were to conduct a marketing study of the Catholic Church, relying solely on newspaper articles, popular books, and Hollywood movies to get a sense of the Church’s core product, the conclusion might well be that Catholicism is in the business not...

Introduction

The Catholic Church makes some pretty exalted claims for itself. Over the centuries, the Church has described itself variously as the “Mystical Body” of Jesus Christ, the “Spotless Bride” of the Son of God, and the “Temple of the Holy Spirit,” the only path to...

New Frontiers

Back in the early sixteenth century, things looked fairly bleak for the Catholic Church. Sensational accounts of sexual and financial scandals involving Catholic priests had inflamed public opinion, fueling perceptions of the Church as arrogant and hypocritical. Internally, the Church was torn by fierce theological...