Shows / The Catholic Thing
The Catholic Thing
The Catholic Thing is a daily column rooted in the richest cultural tradition in the world, i.e., the concrete historical reality of Catholicism.
Episodes
The Catholic ThingA Century of Catholic Education
By James P. MacGuire In 1896, Episcopal clergyman John Byron Diman founded St. George's School in Newport, R.I. It became one of the so-called Saint Grottlesex…
The Catholic ThingThe Sorrows of Young Zoomers
By Auguste Meyrat With many members of the Gen Z cohort (b. 1997-2012) coming of age and entering public life, it behooves older generations to understand them…
The Catholic ThingThe Day Before Disaster
By Michael Pakaluk "We know that to them that love God, all things work together unto good" (Romans 8:28). Disasters must come in this fallen world, and maybe…
The Catholic ThingMedicinal Notes on Inter-Religious Dialogue
By Francis X. Maier For three of my 27 years on diocesan staff, I had the attached duty of ecumenical and inter-religious affairs. It was great work. We had…
The Catholic ThingFirst, Do No Harm?
By Amy Fahey A little over a year ago, I took my aged father for a specialist visit. The appointment, which I still recall with painful clarity, put me in mind…
The Catholic ThingWork, the World, and the Human Person
By St. Pope John Paul II Through work, man must earn his daily bread and contribute to the continual advance of science and technology and, above all, to…
The Catholic ThingCaravaggio's 'The Incredulity of St. Thomas'
By Brad Miner There was once a monument in Rome called Milliarium Aureum: the Golden Milestone. The Emperor Augustus erected it in the Forum in about 20 B.C…
The Catholic ThingHoly Hypocrisy
By Robert Lazu Kmita In a world where formal pronouns have disappeared from almost every language, and where good manners are not merely rare but actively…
The Catholic ThingCardinal Sarah and the Crisis in Bioethics
By Sister Renée Mirkes, OSF Cardinal Robert Sarah's address this summer to the European Parliament identifies a foundational problem in contemporary bioethical…
The Catholic ThingThe Greatness of the First St. Gregory
By Stephen P. White Today the Church marks the feast of St. Gregory the Great, pope and doctor of the Church. He was born around 540, just a few years before…
The Catholic ThingThe English Martyrs and Tyburn's Hidden Waters
By Joanna Bogle In London, on the corner near the Marble Arch, there's a noteworthy medallion on a traffic island commemorating Tyburn Tree. When English…
The Catholic ThingThe Church in Dialogue: What Approach? And With Whom?
By Randall Smith The Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes says that the Church has the duty of responding to "the perennial questions…
The Catholic ThingFulton Sheen: Casting Fire on the Earth
By Robert Royal In 1945, Louis Budenz – a Communist activist and managing editor of the party's newspaper The Daily Worker – was received back into the…
The Catholic ThingRelaxing With the Bible Alone
By Rev. Jerry J. Pokorsky At times it's enjoyable to kick your feet up with the Ignatius Bible on your lap and spend a couple of hours reading the Gospels or…
The Catholic ThingChimes of Freedom
By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza This summer I got a new favorite song – Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom. It's not a new song; it dates from the early 1960s. It…
The Catholic ThingIs Religious Faith Foolishness – or Wisdom?
By Msgr. Charles Fink Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is that something such that it has the remarkable capacity to evolve into the complex yet…
The Catholic ThingA Blindspot in Catholic Social Teaching: Generational Theft
By Michael Pakaluk Search the Catechism, the Compendium of Catholic Social Doctrine, indeed the entire Vatican website – search all you want – for teaching…
The Catholic ThingSome Thoughts on Stoner Alley
By Francis X. Maier One of my favorite, if cynical, figures from Reformation history and Europe's Wars of Religion is Henri de Bourbon. Raised as a committed…
The Catholic ThingDefending the Social Kingship of Christ
By Kristen Ziccarelli There are few things more foreign to the modern imagination than the idea of a Christian king. We are accustomed to separating the sacred…
The Catholic ThingSynodality Will Kill Catholicism
By Brad Miner The Catholic Church has always distinguished itself from other Christian bodies by its claim to possess, and be bound by, a deposit of faith…
The Catholic ThingGood Questions
By Fr. Paul D. Scalia Soon-to-be-Blessed Fulton Sheen once quipped, "The questions of God are more satisfying than the answers of man." (That's a variation on…
The Catholic ThingRemembering Ratzinger at Rimini
By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza Pope Leo XIV is traveling to Rimini today for the annual cultural festival organized by Communion and Liberation (CL). Few use its…
The Catholic ThingBeauty: A True Human Need
By Joseph R. Wood As I write, on the day celebrated by some Orthodox as the feast of the Transfiguration on the Julian calendar, I've had several experiences…
The Catholic ThingStar Gazing
By Stephen P. White But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight – Thursday, August 20 at 8 PM Eastern – to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The…
The Catholic ThingRestless and at Home in America
By Robert Royal We recently reached the 250th anniversary (a quarter-millennium) of the dominant nation and culture of our time – and of one of the greatest…
The Catholic ThingSelling Radical 'Synodality' as 'Social Prophecy' If synodality is "not a programme needing to be implemented" why does the Synod Secretariat's website present it as a programme needing to be implemented? In 2028 the Synod Secretariat will host an Ecclesial Assembly. If Synodality is "not a project with a 2028 deadline," does that mean that the Ecclesial Assembly is simply the first of an endless series of Ecclesial Assemblies? If synodality is "not one more meeting", why are any more meetings being scheduled? What is the "deep identity of the Church"? Was this identity unknown until synodality was invented by Pope Francis? Who identified this deep identity and how did they do so? What is the difference between being "another Church" and "being a Church in a different way"? What does "being the Church in a different way" mean? Different from what? What do "clericalism, hierarchicalism and institutional self-sufficiency" mean? What is clericalism and who are the clericalists? What in the world is hierarchicalism? Isn't the Catholic Church hierarchical by nature, which means that it is governed by ordained hierarchs? Does God not give to the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, what is sufficient to carry out her mission to preach the Gospel, to sanctify mankind through the administration of the sacraments and to provide shepherds for the wise governance of the flock of Christ? What is the Church lacking and who can supply that need? Why is it posited that the Church at present lacks "a culture of listening, co-responsibility, discernment and genuine exchange"? What does co-responsibility mean? Does it mean that decision making by the hierarchy alone must be put aside in favor of co-decision making in which the hierarchy and the laity together govern the Church? What is social prophecy? Who engages in such prophecy? Who decides that it is true prophecy and not false prophecy, namely someone's opinion wrongly put forth as God's will? What is the grammar of peace? Does peace have a grammar?
By Fr. Gerald E. Murray The recent annual Assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious received a video message from Pope Leo XIV, in which he…
The Catholic Thing'I Want to Believe'
By Randall Smith I sometimes hear people say something like this: "I want to believe, but I just can't," or "I would like to believe, but I just don't." I…
The Catholic ThingReligious Life is the Higher Calling
By David G Bonagura, Jr. A wave of egalitarianism, swelling for over two centuries, has broken over every corner of the West, including the Church. In its…
The Catholic ThingThe Assumption: A Feast of Doctrinal Development
By Michael Pakaluk Why debate what the development of doctrine looked like in distant eras of Church history when we have three instances in front of us, two…
The Catholic ThingIn Praise of Notre Dame's John Cavadini
By Christopher Kaczor Who is Notre Dame's MVP? I don't mean the Most Valuable Player on the football team. I mean the Most Valuable Professor on the faculty…
The Catholic ThingThe Choices We Should Make
By John M. Grondelski The Institute for Family Studies just released "The Demographic Dead End: Without Action, American Population Will Soon Decline," the…
The Catholic ThingThe Powerlessness of Power
By Robert Royal I've been in Central Europe for the past few weeks for two educational projects, one that will celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2026…
The Catholic ThingWhat Is Beautiful? What Is Ugly?
By Brad Miner In the Mile End Road, opposite to the London Hospital, there was . . . a vacant greengrocer's which was to let. The whole of the front of the…
The Catholic ThingHow to be a Dhimmi
By Francis X. Maier In late July, some 60,000 migrants surged into the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco. The migrants were mainly young…
The Catholic ThingCathedrals Old and New
By K.E. Colombini On a trip back home to Southern California, I had the opportunity to visit the church of my baptism, my "mother church," as they say. When I…
The Catholic ThingVouchers and Vaccines
By Daniel Guernsey The state of Florida is threatening to pull over a billion dollars of school choice funds from Catholic schools because those schools refuse…
The Catholic ThingMarriage Advice
By Stephen P. White Next week, my wife and I will celebrate our 20th anniversary. We were just out of high school when we first met – barely a year older than…
The Catholic ThingThe Transfiguration: Why Christ Gave His Disciples Beauty
By Kristen Ziccarelli Today, August 6, the Feast of the Transfiguration, commemorates one of the most mysterious moments in Christ's public ministry. Ascending…
The Catholic ThingFreedom from (Airline) Religion
By Casey Chalk Earlier this month, Orlando-based evangelist and social media influencer Whitney Lynn posted a video of herself offering a brief preaching…
The Catholic ThingLead Us Not Into Temptation
By Randall Smith There was a bit of a kerfuffle a few years back over the phrase in the Our Father: "Lead us not into temptation." It was suggested that the…
The Catholic ThingThe Way Not Taken
By Robert Royal This is the first summer in quite a while that circumstances have prevented me from taking a walking pilgrimage, usually something like the…
The Catholic ThingVictory Through Suffering
By Fr. Thomas Kuffel Nike, the shoe company, not the ancient Greek goddess, famously said, "Just Do It." But why is the company called "Nike," and what does…
The Catholic ThingWhat is a Cat?
By Steven Jonathan Rummelsburg When I ask my classes, "What is a cat?" inevitably the answer is, "Whatever someone says it is." Not so long ago, every seventh…
The Catholic ThingAn EZ Guide to Modern Politics
By Francis X. Maier Yes, alas, it's another election year. You know what that means. The free-fire zone, formerly known as our public square, demands that we…
The Catholic ThingThat Old-Time Religion
By Michael Pakaluk I wonder if a certain greater sobriety is not asked of us as regards our use of social media. And if so, who is going to tell us so? So much…
The Catholic ThingA Royal Saint for Every Age
By Amy Fahey Norwegian soccer star Erling Haaland recently made news not for his playing or pseudo-Viking antics, but for his record-breaking purchase of a…
The Catholic Thing'Joan of Arc': My Favorite Painting
By Brad Miner Many readers know of my passion for art, especially painting. I'm particularly fond of the work of the great Catholic artists Caravaggio, Rubens…
The Catholic ThingMy Hope for Christian Europe
By Kristen Ziccarelli French existentialist Gabriel Marcel called hope "the stuff of which the soul is made." Dante marked the entrance to Hell by its absence…
The Catholic ThingFound and Finding, Bought and Buying
By Fr. Paul D. Scalia Two of the parables set before us today are traditionally understood as lessons in the cost of discipleship. The treasure buried in the…
The Catholic ThingPolish Prelates: Four Cardinals Form a Pope
By Fr. Raymond J. de Souza Kraków, Poland – Poland is a nation that has endured by memory, a land therefore where anniversaries are marked with extra care…
The Catholic ThingHeading for the Hills
By Joseph R. Wood Recently, I read an author's claim that "as Christians we can't simply ignore politics. We're supposed to be leaven in the world. So we can't…
The Catholic ThingKids These Days
By Stephen P. White I'm old enough now to be the sort of person who will occasionally observe, in all apparent earnestness, that being around young people…
The Catholic ThingThe Problem of Evil and the Firmness of Faith
By David G Bonagura, Jr. I was listening to the Bible in a Year Podcast when these lines came up from 2 Chronicles 28:3: "[King Ahaz] burned incense in the…
The Catholic ThingNo Salvation Outside the Church
By Randall Smith How many of these can you identify? Marcionites, Montanists, Sabellians, Donatists, Quartodecimans, Pneumatomachians, Apollonarians…
The Catholic ThingAn 'Odyssey' for Our Time
By Robert Royal I don't often comment on films or – truth be told – usually care much about them. I leave that to those who do care and are much better at it…
The Catholic ThingOf the Ecclesial Crisis and Winter Bread
By David P. Deavel The excommunications issued to the six bishops involved in the Society of St. Pius X's consecrations are easy to defend. Pope Leo told the…
The Catholic Thing‘I Am Arthur, [Catholic] King of the Britons’
By Brad Miner In our current mood of skepticism and sense of superiority about our own ancestors, it's easy, almost obligatory, to mock their beliefs and…
The Catholic ThingThoughts from the Memory Hole
By Francis X. Maier Americans don't suffer from amnesia. We prefer it. Memory shapes who we are as individuals, a nation, and a culture. But we define…
The Catholic ThingFoolproof against Nothingness
By Michael Pakaluk But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight – Thursday, July 16 at 8 PM Eastern – to EWTN for a new episode of the Papal Posse on 'The…
The Catholic ThingHard Lessons from a Priest Who Stayed in Gaza
By Auguste Meyrat In the interest of diplomacy and personal relations, it's normally a good idea to follow the adage, "If you can't say anything nice about…