Pope Leo XIV on Seeking God and Atheism
This week, Pope Leo XIV addressed a striking question from an atheist who paradoxically described himself as someone who loves God. Writing in the February issue of the magazine Piazza San Pietro, the Holy Father responded by quoting a well-known line from St. Augustine’s Confessions: “You were within me and I was outside and there […]
Saint Francis Lives On: Pilgrims Flock to Assisi
The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi shelters one of the most sacred places in the Christian world: the Porziuncola, the small chapel where Saint Francis understood his vocation and founded the Order of Friars Minor. Within the same basilica, however, stands another site that many pilgrims pass without noticing — the Chapel […]
Holy Year of Saint Francis: 8th Centenary of his Life
With a papal decree, Pope Leo XIV has proclaimed a Jubilee Year dedicated to Saint Francis, to be celebrated from January 10, 2026, to January 10, 2027. The year marks eight centuries since the death of the Poor Man of Assisi and invites Christians across the world to rediscover and live his message of peace, […]
Varden: Angels Don’t Indulge Our Whims
The Cistercian bishop reflected on angels as mediators of God’s providence and on St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s realism rooted in mercy. Bishop Erik Varden continued leading the Vatican’s Lenten spiritual exercises on Feb. 26 with meditations on angels, trust in God, and St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s path from lofty ideals to what Varden described as […]
Varden: Not Every Fall Ends in Joy
Bishop Erik Varden warned Pope Leo XIV and the Roman Curia that corruption within the Church has caused profound harm. Falls can humble people when they are “puffed up,” showing God’s power to save, and can become “milestones on a personal journey of salvation, to be recalled gratefully,” Bishop Erik Varden said during this week’s […]
Pope Leo XIV replies to atheist who ‘loves God’
An atheist expresses his quandary that although he does not believe in God yet somehow he loves him. Pope Leo responds with thoughtful, insightful counsel. Pope Leo XIV responded to an atheist who paradoxically described himself as someone who “loves God,” explaining to him that “the real problem of faith” isn’t believing or not believing […]
The Polyglot Popes: How Language Builds Bridges
The Vatican website offers content in more than 60 languages today, reflecting a commitment to reach people by speaking to them in their mother tongues. Until about six decades ago, the Catholic Church relied heavily on Latin in its official and liturgical communication. But as a universal Church embracing many peoples, it recognized the importance […]
SSPX’s Rupture With Tradition and Rome
COMMENTARY: The Society of St. Pius X’s latest rejection of Vatican overtures must be called out for what it is: a not-so-latent de facto sedevacantism. The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by Cardinal Victor Fernández, recently hosted the superior general of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Father Davide Pagliarani, […]
The Casaroli Myth and the Truth About Ostpolitik
COMMENTARY: The Italian cardinal’s Ostpolitik diplomacy is considered a key to the collapse of European communism. It was nothing of the sort. Cardinal Agostino Casaroli, Vatican secretary of state from 1979 to 1990 — and before that, the architect and chief diplomatic agent of the Ostpolitik of Pope Paul VI — initially played hard-to-get when […]
7 Things to Know About Bishop Erik Varden
The Norwegian Trappist monk chosen to preach the Vatican’s Lenten retreat once called himself an atheist — and today is one of Europe’s most respected Catholic thinkers. Pope Leo XIV, not even a year into his pontificate, still has much to show the world about his own spiritual practices — up until now, there hasn’t […]
