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May 1 marks the anniversary of the death of Pope Saint Pius V (1504-1572), one of my favorite Popes, as well as being one of the most consequential Pontiffs of history. During his relatively short six year reign, from AD 1566 through AD 1572, Pope Pius V: * assembled the Holy League which successfully defended Christendom against the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto; * excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I, calling her "the pretended queen of England and servant of crime"; * issued Quo Primum which regularized the Tridentine form of the liturgy and made it valid in perpetuity; * issued...

Medal showing Pope St. Pius V struck in honor of the victory of the Holy League at Lepanto. Last week's blow-up between the Roman Catholic Pontiff and the American President generated considerable heat, but not very much light. Every pundit and influencer on every side registered an opinion, and most of them were ill-informed, facile, or just plain wrong. Does the Pope have a right to sound off on political questions, even when his opinions are directly critical of a given country's current policies and actions? Of course he does. Popes have been doing this for centuries, millennia even, sometimes...

It is being reported with breathless enthusiasm by the normally Catholic-phobic Left-media that a meeting between Vatican US representative Cardinal Christophe Pierre and Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby back in January of 2026 went sideways in dramatic fashion. Anonymously-sourced reports say that Colby threatened Cardinal Pierre that the US, "has the military power to do whatever it wants in the world. The Catholic Church had better take its side." ' As if that wasn't bad enough, it was reported that "one official present" made reference to the Avignon Papacy — a period spanning nearly 70 years when the Papacy was...

OK, I admit it. I have never liked the Easter Bunny. Of course, as a kid I did enjoy getting a basket full of malted milk chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. But the idea that those delicious chocolate eggs with the rich creamery filling made by Cadbury were actually laid by a fat, white, clucking lagomorph—that was a bridge too far. Then, there was also the iconic lazy Easter Rabbit of Looney Tunes fame (Easter Yeggs, 1946), who tricked Bugs Bunny into delivering the eggs for him. Part of me rooted for Elmer Fudd when he said, "I'm waiting for...

Like clockwork, whenever there's a military conflict in the Middle East, articles begin popping up regarding the rebuilding of the Third Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Some claim that construction is already secretly underway. Others maintain that the Temple can not be rebuilt except by the Messiah. The topic even came up at a White House press briefing last October when a reporter asked Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt if the topic of rebuilding the Temple had been brought up in Trump cabinet meetings. "It has not," Ms. Leavitt replied. "No it hasn't" Given that the Temple Mount is currently occupied by...

BUCKS COUNTY, Pa. (WPVI) -- Six people were arrested Saturday in New York City following a dueling protest outside Gracie Mansion, and federal authorities have launched a terrorism investigation. Two of those arrested are from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and remain in custody. On Sunday, FBI agents searched the homes of 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi in Newtown and 18-year-old Emir Balat in Langhorne. The searches came after the NYPD said at least one improvised explosive device was deployed during the protest, with additional devices now under investigation. "Nothing like this happens around here. So it's pretty scary," Newtown neighbor Pamela Pulsinelli said.

The National Shrine of Our Lady of Champion (originally known as Our Lady of Good Help), is the only formally approved Marian apparition site in the United States. Considering the site is near Green Bay, Wisconsin, I had at one time, in my profound ignorance, assumed that it must have something to do with the Packers various Super Bowl victories. But no. The site has nothing to do with Vince Lombardi, Brett Farve, or Aaron Rogers. It is much more closely associated with Our Lady, Star of the Sea, than Bart Starr. My general lack of knowledge about this shrine...

The host city for World Youth Day 2027 will be Seoul, South Korea. The fact that an American Pope will be presiding and that Korean culture generally is pretty popular in the US means that interest in attending should be pretty high among Americans. I suspect that some of my own kids may find their way over there for the event. This being the case, what better time for American Catholics to find out about the vibrant past and hopeful future of the Church in Korea? Seoul is a particularly appropriate site for WYD 2027 considering that Catholicism had its...

This post is the first in a series drawn from a new book entitled Martyrs of Blood, Martyrs of Sweat: The Letters of Saint Andrew Kim Dae-geon and Venerable Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop, as translated and edited by Brothers Anthony and Han-yol of the Community of Taizé, published by Arx Publishing. This engrossing work contains all of the extant correspondence of these first two native Korean Catholic priests. Andrew Kim would go on to be martyred and later canonized a saint. Thomas Choe perished of exhaustion and sickness after ministering in his native land for over a decade. During their...

After reports surfaced that the Trump administration restored frozen family planning funds to Planned Parenthood, many pro-life commentators expressed frustration. But pro-life operatives with knowledge of the decision argue the story is not as simple as some initially thought: The administration faced limited legal options and releasing the funds may ultimately strengthen efforts to cut off taxpayer support for abortions in the near future. Politico reported Jan. 13 that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in December “quietly released” tens of millions of dollars in previously frozen Title X family planning grants to Planned Parenthood and other abortion...

As explained in a previous post, the Nativity of Jesus has been celebrated by Christians on December 25 since antiquity. The feast of the Nativity has always been an opportunity for homiletic fireworks on a grand scale, and the Fathers of the Church took full advantage of the sacred day to wax eloquent. In keeping with this theme, here are a few excerpts from some of the earliest extant homilies delivered by various Church Fathers to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God. The first comes from Pope Liberius who reigned in the mid-4th century AD....

At Mass this morning, our good priest reflected in his homily on thankfulness, as is proper on this Thanksgiving Day here in the US. He specifically called out how we Americans can tend to obsess over our First World problems which can cause us to forget to give thanks for the blessings we have. He gave a general example of the millions upon millions of people on earth who wonder how they will feed their children anything at all each day. Meanwhile, we get upset if the baked potatoes get a little burnt, or if the pasta sauce is watery....

The Feast of All Saints as we know it today has its origins in that period of chaos and transition between Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. One of the milestones in the development of the Feast took place in the year AD 608 when Pope Boniface IV consecrated the formerly pagan temple known as the Pantheon in Rome to Our Lady and All the Saints. The Pantheon, of course, is that marvelous architectural monument to Roman ingenuity which has somehow managed to survive the scourge of time and come down to us practically intact. Originally built as a...

Charlie Kirk was assassinated while doing what he loved—talking with young people and getting them to ponder what they believe and why they believe it. Charlie was supremely effective at engaging with college-age crowds. The reason for this is because he was authentic. If he talked about Jesus, it's because he truly loved Jesus and he wasn't afraid to say so into a microphone in front of a thousand people, many of whom might not have been particularly receptive to the message. If he touted marriage, it's because he was married and knew that strong marriages are the core of...

The feast day of Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine, is commemorated by Catholics on August 18. Aside from her role as matriarch of the Constantinian dynasty, Helena is most remembered today for her finding of the True Cross of Jesus Christ. This discovery took place during Helena's celebrated pilgrimage to the Holy Land near the end of her life, during which time she undertook the task of uncovering the sites associated with Christ's life and passion and the building of commemorative shrines. Eusebius Pamphilus, Helena's contemporary and bishop of Caesarea Maritima, records many of Helena's deeds during this trek....

For many years I have appreciated and enjoyed the Vision series – a sequence of biographical novels about the lives of the saints and Catholic heroes written especially for younger readers. The series commenced in the hoary antiquity of the 1940s and has continued over the decades, featuring a variety of authors—some of whom, like Louis de Wohl for example, were writers of supreme talent. Several of the books in the series have been reviewed by your humble blogger over the years, among them books on Saint Helena, Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich, and Saints Louis and Zelie Martin. The last...

Amazon is going to pay The New York Times between $20 million to $25 million per year to use the paper’s content to train its AI models and share article summaries via Alexa. The multiyear deal was announced in May, but the financial terms of the deal were first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Beyond NYT news stories, Amazon will also be able to share content from NYT Cooking and The Athletic, its subscription sports outlet. The Amazon deal stands out, considering The Times is currently suing OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT; The Times claims OpenAI...

A new poll suggested that democratic socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s sheen may already be wearing off among voters. Mamdani’s support appears to have dropped 14 percentage points from less than a week ago, based on a previous poll, while Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa’s surged 12 percent. Mamdani shocked the political world by winning the Democratic primary, defeating former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. He now faces Sliwa and Cuomo, as well as current New York City Mayor Eric Adams, in the general election. Cuomo and Adams are both running as independents, assuming they each decide to...

The top spot on my rankings of Civil War movies alternates between two classics: Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josie Wales, and Glory, which features an all-star cast including Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman, Carey Elwes and Matthew Broderick. We re-watched both within the past week. Of the two, I think Glory is the more intriguing if only because it portrays the deeds of true Civil War heroes: Col. Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. After watching it this time, I was inspired to dig a little deeper on Shaw to see what made him tick. What made a Boston...

The dominant literary culture of the late 20th century loved to tear down the heroes of the past, focusing almost entirely on their flaws while belittling the virtues, beliefs, and deeds that made them worthy of admiration in the first place. I have written about this annoying tendency previously on several occasions, including here and here. In our own time, we are afflicted with a slightly different problem: cultural arbiters who know almost nothing about the great men and women who went before them, save the cherry-picked anecdotes that magically seem to support their political cause of the moment. It...