What to make of those who dunk idols in the river?

The things we most cherish demand a “Platonic turn,” one that reaches into the muck of incomplete ideas, and with a bit of virtuous unknowing produces a glimpse of goodness worthy of deep affection.

That jewel which fire could not destroy
Some divine grace thou didst employ

To affirm that “God is” and live in this awesome reality is the challenge of discipleship.

The sooner we reject false fatalism, the sooner we can get on with addressing the Church's deepest problems at their root.

We should demand bishops who are willing to accept their "special responsibility." And we should strive to be as harmonious as possible.

For all the failures of the American bishops, it would be foolish to suppose they're anything less than successors to the Apostles. But if we believe this, we should vigorously demand it.

We can't possibly be part of a solution to the current crisis. We are also not part of the problem. But we'll never know enough to resolve it.

The youth synod is timely, but extremely ironic. We can't really hope that trends in faith or vocations will change anytime soon.

My Catholic identity still rests on elements of faith instilled in my childhood. Not on a keen sense for sniffing out good churchmen.

The Catechism, today, shows more about the distortions of Catholic intellectualism than a failure by the Church to teach the truth.

Francis's teaching on capital punishment represents a discontinuity in the life of the Church. But one that highlights a deeper continuity.

We're all victims, and enablers, in a culture of addiction that's endemic to Christians as much as anyone else.

The present moment, both for the Church and for humanity, is one that we should entrust a bit more to "jesuitical" brilliance.

Stifling Pope Benedict's voice, who is perhaps the moral theologian par excellence, endangers not only the clarity of the moral message of the Church, but the formation of all Christian consciences.

The personal decision of the Holy Father was a final public instruction on the practical, sometimes uncomfortable character of deep faith expected for each and every Christian.

I remember him — back when he was just Father Ladaria — as an extremely gentle but intellectually powerful man.

We should recall and speak first of “God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory."