The Catholic Thing

By Msgr. Charles FinkWhy is there something rather than nothing? Why is that something such that it has the remarkable capacity to evolve into the complex yet orderly universe we behold, so orderly that predictability and science are possible? Why do even the simplest living cells contain genetic information analogous to complex computer codes?These are not meaningless questions. Nor is it...

By Michael PakalukSearch the Catechism, the Compendium of Catholic Social Doctrine, indeed the entire Vatican website – search all you want – for teaching about what we call the "national debt." You will not find it. You can find teaching about the debt that poorer nations owe to wealthier nations, "foreign debt," but not about the debt that a government accumulates through financing...

By Francis X. MaierOne of my favorite, if cynical, figures from Reformation history and Europe's Wars of Religion is Henri de Bourbon. Raised as a committed (Calvinist) Huguenot, he succeeded to the French throne as Henri IV. But in a dominantly Catholic nation, he faced fierce resistance. So he did the pragmatic thing. He converted. His motives may have been dubious. But a line attributed to him...

By Kristen ZiccarelliThere are few things more foreign to the modern imagination than the idea of a Christian king. We are accustomed to separating the sacred from the political, faith from public life, and the Church from the ordering of society. But for much of Christian history, these divisions would have seemed all but impossible.Today's feast of King St. Louis IX of France (August 25) offers...

By Brad MinerThe Catholic Church has always distinguished itself from other Christian bodies by its claim to possess, and be bound by, a deposit of faith handed down from the Apostles. The Church comes from Christ, and the Church doesn't invent, revise, or vote on its Magisterium, its authoritative application of that depositum fidei. It receives, guards, and transmits that ancient faith....

By Fr. Paul D. ScaliaSoon-to-be-Blessed Fulton Sheen once quipped, "The questions of God are more satisfying than the answers of man." (That's a variation on his friend G.K. Chesterton's line, "The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.") Today's Gospel (Matthew 16:13-20) gives evidence of this truth. God doesn't ask questions because He needs the answers, but because we...

By Fr. Raymond J. de SouzaPope Leo XIV is traveling to Rimini today for the annual cultural festival organized by Communion and Liberation (CL). Few use its formal name, the "Meeting for Friendship Amongst Peoples." It's simply "Rimini." It might be the only thing many know about the Italian coastal town, which draws major figures from the worlds of religion, the arts, and even Italian politics...

By Joseph R. WoodAs I write, on the day celebrated by some Orthodox as the feast of the Transfiguration on the Julian calendar, I've had several experiences of beauty just this morning. The sunrise through the West Virginia trees, the sunlight streaming into an Orthodox monastery church and illuminating the rising incense smoke around the icons, the chant, the memory of the faces of those I love,...

By Stephen P. WhiteBut 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 World Over.' TCT Editor-in-Chief Robert Royal and contributor Fr. Gerald E. Murray will join host Raymond Arroyo to discuss the ongoing debates about synodality and liturgy, liberal nuns who challenge Church teaching, and other current issues...

By Robert RoyalWe recently reached the 250th anniversary (a quarter-millennium) of the dominant nation and culture of our time – and of one of the greatest countries in world history. Yet just a few weeks later, you'd hardly know it. And only a month ago, everyone was talking – even here – about a film adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, a 3000-year-old foundation stone of our civilization. That, too,...