Columnist: Phil Lawler
US Bishops Denounce ‘The Most Significant Pro-Life Law Ever’
“Social conservatives have dreamed for decades about bankrupting Planned Parenthood,” writes Matthew Hennessey in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. But it’s never been more than a dream. Until now. For ...
On Immigration, US Bishops See Only One Side
Looking at the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce US immigration laws, and the sometimes violent reactions, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, speaking as president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) ...
Charlotte Bishop Threatens Full-Scale ‘Liturgy War’
Bishop Martin's leaked memorandum reveals that his mission goes WAY BEYOND ending the Tridentine Mass: he wants to destroy all signs of Tradition. With a directive that bans the celebration ...
The Corruption Pope Francis Chose Not To Expose
This week, with the publication of his new book, Pope Francis has added one important link to the chain of evidence regarding the fight against Vatican corruption. In April 2012, ...
USCCB to Trump: You Can’t Fire Me; I Quit!
Responding to the Trump administration’s drastic curb on refugee-resettlement programs, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has announced its decision “not to renew the cooperative agreements with the federal ...
Should the Supreme Court Be Empowered To Determine If Catholic Charities Is Really Catholic?
Is Catholic Charities really Catholic? That’s a good question, an important question, a question that we have raised frequently on this site. But it’s not an appropriate question for the ...
Phil Lawler: The Pope’s Disastrous Letter on Immigration
In a letter ostensibly written to support the bishops of the US, Pope Francis has actually made life considerably more difficult for them. In his letter on the Trump administration’s ...
The $5 Billion Cost of Ecclesiastical Corruption
Five billion dollars. $5,000,000.000.00 Catholic dioceses and religious orders in the United States have spent a bit more than that in the past 20 years to settle the financial costs ...
A Failed Attempt to Enforce Priestly Celibacy?
Back when ‘Diogenes’ was writing regularly for CatholicCulture, he made the point (in a private email, I’m sorry to say; not on this site) that when we say that an ...
Pelosi’s Canonical Gambit
This week many Catholic news sites are commenting on the report that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi has appealed to the Vatican to reverse the edict of San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore ...
Here’s Why The ‘Zero Tolerance’ Policy Is Going Nowhere
When I saw this lede on a Reuters news story this week, my sense of déjà vu was overwhelming: A former top Vatican official who dealt with clergy sexual abuse ...
Top Vatican Officials Clash on Sex-Abuse Discipline for Argentine Priest
In more than 40 years of covering news of the Catholic Church, I have never encountered a Vatican story as wild as this one, nor one that is potentially—I stress, ...
The Threat of a Runaway Synod
Writing in the notorious National Catholic Reporter, the equally notorious Father Thomas Reese, SJ, laments that as things stand, the Synod on Synodality will not produce the radical doctrine changes ...
Rhetoric vs. Reality in the Synod’s Working Document
Some Catholics may be reassured to learn that the working document for 2024 meeting the Synod on Synodality does not touch the most controversial issues that have been debated during ...
A New Offensive in the War on Traditional Liturgy
Rome’s rumor mills are buzzing. According to multiple sources, a new Vatican document is being prepared, which would impose still tighter restrictions on the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass ...
A New – and EXPLOSIVE – ‘Dubium’
In the Open Letter that I reproduce below, Father Jan Krutewicz, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, has raised an interesting and important question—one that has potentially explosive implications ...
Francis Poses as Scientific ‘Expert’
“The stakes could not be higher,” Pope Francis said on May 16, speaking to participants in an international conference on climate change. But actually the stakes could be higher; they ...
Bishops: Time to Resist the ‘Gender-Affirming’ Juggernaut
Your Excellencies, you certainly “cannot encourage” gender-altering surgery, because it is an offense against human dignity. But you could forthrightly oppose it. And you didn’t. The horror stories are going ...
The “Queer” Pastoral Care of the German Bishops
The story is appalling, yet I can’t help finding a comic aspect to the German bishops’ announcement that Bishop Ludger Schepers “will be the representative for queer pastoral care.” On ...
The Imprudent Pope
Back when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio declined a journalist’s request for an in-depth interview. He explained that he did not feel comfortable expressing himself in ...
Fiducia: The Defense of Incompetence
One more thought on Fiducia Supplicans, and then I’ll turn to more pleasant topics. (And nearly everything short of the bubonic plague is a more pleasant topic.) If you draft ...
