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The Catholic Thing is a daily column rooted in the richest cultural tradition in the world, i.e., the concrete historical reality of Catholicism.
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Join well-known theologian and author Edward Sri for weekly insights on understanding and living out the Catholic faith. Delve deeper into the Bible, prayer time, virtue, relationships, marriage and family and culture with practical reflections on all things Catholic. Don't just go through the motions. Live as an intentional Catholic, a disciple of Jesus Christ.
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By Fr. Paul D. Scalia. The famous Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil is often credited with the saying, "All politics is local." Now, I'm not particularly interested in the political part of that statement. But I am interested in how it applies to my line of work. You could say that all salvation is local. It happens in particular souls. And you don't…
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By Stephen P. White During this season of Lent, we make it a point of discipline and charity to pray, fast, and give alms. It has long been my practice to make a special effort during this season to pray, with more consistency than I manage during the rest of the year, the Liturgy of the Hours. For anyone looking to structure his day around prayer …
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By David Warren. We still do not know - anything, really - about the "coronavirus pandemic" that passed through the news five years ago. We agreed to a fortnight to "contain the spread," on Dr. Birx's advice, now 130 fortnights ago. Needless to say, her official mission seems to have ended, along with Dr. Fauci's, and for the moment we do not endur…
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By Fr. Gerald E. Murray. But first a note: TCT's three-week online course on St. Bonaventure's "The Soul's Journey into God" starts TONIGHT! Don't miss this opportunity to enrich your spiritual life this Lent. Just click here for more information about the course and how to register. Now for today's column... The unending process that is the Synod …
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By Casey Chalk. "There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church," famously opined Venerable Servant of God Fulton Sheen, "but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be." I'd go a step further: if there's one thing that people, regardless of their religious affiliation, feel …
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The Catholic Church has a rich heritage of apostolic succession. In this special episode, Dr. Sri takes us on a pilgrimage through the historical roots of the Catholic faith in Rome. He explores the significance of early Church fathers like St. Clement of Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch, highlighting their contributions to our understanding of apo…
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By Randall Smith. One of the hardest goals to achieve in Catholic education is an embodiment in practice of the vision Pope John Paul II laid out in Ex corde ecclesiae and in his encyclical Fides et Ratio: an education animated both by the truths of faith and the truths of reason. As John Paul II expressed beautifully at the beginning of Fides et R…
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By Mary Eberstadt. But first a note from the Editor: The following remarks were delivered in slightly different form at a conference on "Catholics and Antisemitism: Facing the Past, Shaping the Future," co-sponsored by the Catholic Information Center and the Philos Project, March 10, 2025, in Washington, D.C. A link to the video of the conference c…
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by Luis E. Lugo On the Saturday before the second Sunday of Lent in 445, Pope Leo, whose pontificate spanned more than twenty years, preached a powerful sermon on the Transfiguration. It is one of the nearly one hundred sermons that have been preserved from the first bishop of Rome to have been called Leo (twelve others would follow). The sermons h…
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By David G. Bonagura, Jr. "Drain the swamp!" is one of today's more passionate political cries. The swamp, of course, is Washington, D.C., which oozes all sorts of contaminations: slimy politicians, rancid deals, foggy lies, sink-holes of money, hazy procedures. The people demand a champion, a DOGE, to clean it up: to drain its political and social…
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By Daniel B. Gallagher. But first a note from Robert Royal: So it's Lent. Would you like to energize your spiritual life under the guidance of one of the great Catholic spiritual masters? Of course you do. And that's why you should enroll in TCT's course on St. Bonaventure's The Soul's Journey into God, which starts next week. Your professor is TCT…
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By Michael Pakaluk. But first a note: Be sure to tune in tonight - Thursday, March 13th 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 Pope Francis' ongoing health crisis and its implications, the statu…
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By Francis X. Maier. But first a note: Be sure to tune in tomorrow night - Thursday, March 13th 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 Pope Francis' ongoing health crisis and its implications, t…
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If we don't pay close attention, we can easily miss the wonders of St. Peter's Square. In this special episode of All Things Catholic, Dr. Sri explains the rich theological and historical symbolism behind the incredible design of St. Peter's Square, from its majestic dome to the hundreds of saintly statues on Bernini's columns. Snippet from the Sho…
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by Father Jerry J. Pokorsky. God said to Moses, "I am who I am." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I am has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14) I am nine years old. I live with my mother and father. My father deposited his semen in a medical repository in an In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinic and, eventually, fertilized five of my mothe…
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by Robert Royal. In just the past few days, hundreds of Christians have been murdered, raped, and tortured in Syria. When news outlets even notice what's happening - yesterday's New York Times only carried an "update" of a previous article and the Washington Post's latest story on the massacres appeared Friday - they usually only mention the attack…
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By Fr. Thomas G. Weinandy. As I get older, I find myself thinking more about death. I no longer have my youthful spunk and stamina. I recognize that I am mortal. I will die. "Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty for those who are strong." (Psalm 90). "As for man, his ways are like the grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the w…
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By Brad Miner. I say, "Yes!" The better question may be, however: Can a bad person make it to Heaven? The Lord alone knows that answer. One suspects, however, that this is why Purgatory exists. There is the matter of repentance, of course: the notion, as expressed by Lord Illingworth in Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance: "The only difference b…
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By David Warren. According to the Pew Research Center, and several other samplers of public opinion, the extended decline of Christian belief, and especially of the "traditionalist" kind, has come to a stop. These are polls, and they display what people think on a question, at the moment when asked. There is not, and cannot be, any predictive value…
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by Stephen P. White I distinctly recall the first time I heard someone suggest in earnest that Donald Trump might make a good president. It was the late summer of 2015 and I was having my hair cut. The woman cutting my hair said she hoped Trump would win the following year's election because she liked his stance on immigration. I thought this was a…
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by Robert Royal. The Cloud of Unknowing is probably the most popular mystical treatise in English, a sort of bestseller when it was written in the thirteen hundreds (when England was still Catholic), often republished over centuries, and a favorite of recent, highly discerning figures like C.S. Lewis. It's also unique (in my estimation) in that its…
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In the Stations of the Cross, Jesus falls three times. Have you ever wondered why three? Dr. Sri reveals how these falls symbolize the three main areas where we need God's healing during Lent: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. Dr. Sri also explains how the Lenten practices of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving can serve as antido…
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By Randall Smith. On Ash Wednesday, a cross is drawn on our foreheads with ashes and we hear the words God said to Adam and Eve after the Fall: "From dust you have come and to dust you shall return." With their sin, they brought death into the world. And that "death" was not merely the end of this human life. Adam and Eve were always meant for a mo…
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By John M. Grondelski. A recent issue of The Atlantic carried Kristen Brown's report, "The Coming Democratic Baby Bust," which argues that the first Trump Administration was marked by a sharp fall in births in Democratic locales. Brad Wilcox from the Institute of Family Studies (IFS) and the University of Virginia has also just brought out a study …
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by Dominic V. Cassella. As a Byzantine Catholic, I can always tell if someone has little exposure to the Eastern Christian tradition because of two things. One, when they visit a Byzantine Church, they will genuflect when entering the pew - while many Eastern Catholics will make a bow with the sign of the cross. And two, they will kneel during the …
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By Auguste Meyrat. In any discussion about the foundational cities of Western civilization, most scholars would name Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome. Jerusalem was the birthplace of the great monotheistic religions that defined the West's spirituality, morality, and civic culture. Athens was the origin of the West's intellectual and artistic traditions…
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