Publication: First Things

Catholicism in the United States and Europe is heading toward trouble. The presenting issue is immigration. Vice President JD Vance criticized the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for their ...

A great deal of difference can be tolerated provided that it does not endanger social cohesion. Along with its sibling “diversity,” “tolerance” has achieved the status of being our culture’s ...

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Rev. 2:11). This passage from Scripture is frequently quoted to justify a so-called “synodal ...

Pope Francis has the habit, by now well established, of saying things that leave listeners confused and hoping he meant something other than what he actually said. At the end ...

We need a public conversation among the bishops about the Catholic Campaign for Human Development and whether it is a good use of money in service to the poor. In ...

Nearly two years ago, the Vatican began its historic prosecution of Cardinal Angelo Becciu and other defendants accused of extortion, fraud, money laundering, and misuse of Vatican funds, including charitable ...

In March 2021, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published, under its former prefect, Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, a Responsum that replied in the negative to the question: ...

I love St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York. It was painful to see it the object of a sacrilegious ambush early in Lent. On February 15, a funeral was held ...

The controversy surrounding the recent funeral for Cecilia Gentili at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York has been well-documented in the press. Gentili was a transgender prostitute, an atheist, and ...

Does the Vatican’s recent declaration Fiducia Supplicans contain teachings contrary to the divine and Catholic faith? The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) addressed this question in a ...

Not that long ago, Vatican documents that miss the mark would have angered me. Now, I see them more as tragic events. Such is the case with Fiducia Supplicans, a ...

The confusion surrounding the pope’s recent statement Fiducia Supplicans, a document that is ambiguous about whether Catholic clergy can bless those in same-sex relationships, says much about the times in ...

One of the standards the Church uses to measure the quality of her leaders is a simple line from Scripture: “God is not the author of confusion but of peace” ...

In a by now familiar sequence of events, the Vatican released a document on Monday which caused instant confusion. “Pope says Roman Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples,” the headlines ...

By their vocabulary, you shall know them? Well, to a considerable degree. And in these early November days, when the Church celebrates all the saints in glory and prays for ...

How many Catholic schools are really just public schools with a Mass requirement attached, plus an elective or two of theology? Many schools feature lots of Catholic talk on the ...

Two events of the last week witness to a significant shift in the times in which we live. The first is a sermon by megachurch evangelical pastor Andy Stanley that ...

When Time magazine published its issue on the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, the columnist and pundit Peggy Noonan wrote the profile for her former boss, Ronald ...

Facts and great personages in world history occur, as it were, twice . . . the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.” The Synod on Synodality seems destined ...

Have you heard about the scandalous writings by the new head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office? No, no: I don’t mean Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing, ...

The recently published North American Final Document for the Continental Stage of the 2021–2024 Synod (NAFD) confirms suspicions that the discussions at the October 2023 Synod on Synodality will almost ...