Blog
Catholic perspectives on the news that matters
Father Lucas
Why Pope Leo Keeps Returning to Ukraine in Public Prayer
Pope Leo appealed again for peace in Ukraine and for negotiations to bear fruit. I keep coming back to why that repetition matters more than some people think.
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What Gloria Steinem's Last Debate Still Reveals
Gloria Steinem's death has brought the usual praise. I'm more interested in the part people don't like to touch, what happens when a movement can't make room for regret.
Pastor Benjamin
Why Pope Leo Won't Let Us Sit Out a Broken World
Pope Leo's call to stop being "unengaged spectators" lands hard because passivity can look so respectable. I think he's putting his finger on one of our most polished spiritual excuses.
Jacob Whitman
Why Priests Are Using the Hardest Word for Gaza
A global priests' network didn't reach for soft language on Gaza. I think that matters, not because the word solves anything, but because silence has become its own scandal.
Pastor Benjamin
Why Rome Is Naming Damage to Creation More Clearly
The Vatican’s theological commission just gave ecological sin a sharper name. That might sound technical, but it touches confession, responsibility, and the way we live on ordinary Tuesdays.
Jacob Whitman
Why the Ouellet Ruling Feels So Uncomfortable
Cardinal Ouellet has been vindicated in court. I'm relieved by that, and still uneasy about how quickly Catholics turn rulings like this into tribal scorecards.
Jacob Whitman
Why Pope Leo's Prayer for Haiti Hit Me Harder Than Usual
Pope Leo's appeal for Haiti wasn't just another Vatican prayer line. It carried that strange mix of grief, urgency, and stubborn faith most of us know too well.
Pastor Benjamin
What Haiti's Church Attack Exposes About Our Attention
Pope Leo's appeal after the attack in Kenscoff was necessary, but it also exposed something painful about us. We get used to horrors we should never treat as normal.
Jacob Whitman
How a Child's Rosary Pulled a Marriage Back From the Edge
What struck me in this story wasn't the tidy ending. It was the strange, stubborn way grace entered through a little girl asking her mother to pray.
Henry S. Wallace
Why Guatemala's Host Story Needs Slower Eyes
A possible Eucharistic miracle in Guatemala is drawing attention, and I understand why. Still, the Church's insistence on patience says something important about how Catholics are supposed to love the Eucharist.
Pastor Benjamin
Why Illinois' New Death Law Hit a Nerve in Catholic Care
The temporary block in Illinois isn't the end of anything. Still, it exposes a deeper fight over whether doctors and Catholic institutions must help make death look like care.
Henry S. Wallace
Why This UK Vote Feels Different for Disabled Catholics
Bishop Thomas Menezes isn't talking in abstractions. He's naming the quiet fear many disabled people already carry, that their lives will be weighed and found inconvenient.
Father Lucas
Why Pope Leo's Babel Warning Lands So Hard
Pope Leo's warning about Babel and efficiency isn't abstract church talk. I see it every time systems start acting like they can save us.
Pastor Benjamin
Why a King Still Fits the Franciscan Family
A saintly king as patron of Franciscans feels almost backwards. I think that tension is the whole point, and maybe a needed one.
Pastor Benjamin
Why Pope Leo Tied Ebola Relief to Local Voices
Pope Leo's call for help on Ebola in Congo struck me because he didn't just ask for international aid. He insisted local communities belong at the center of prevention.
Jacob Whitman
Why Mary's Crown Starts in Nazareth, Not Bethlehem
People get nervous when Catholics call Mary a queen. I get it. But the Annunciation makes that title less strange, not more.
Pastor Benjamin
Why Stanley Rother Still Feels Like the Priest Next Door
The new Stanley Rother documentary points to his martyrdom, sure. I keep thinking about the ordinary obedience that came first, and why that matters more than we admit.
Pastor Benjamin
How Sports Betting Turned a Phone Into a Casino
The money in sports betting is staggering. What stays with me more is how easily a normal phone can become a private little engine of debt, obsession, and loneliness.
Father Lucas
Why Praying for Congo's Ebola Victims Isn't a Small Thing
When a crisis is far from us, it's easy to scroll past it. I don't think Catholics can afford that kind of distance, not with Congo suffering again.
Father Lucas
Why Leo's West Bank Appeal Refuses Easy Pieties
Leo XIV didn't hide behind abstractions at the Angelus. His appeal for Palestinians in the West Bank says something uncomfortable about what Catholic speech should sound like now.
Henry S. Wallace