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The nightmare is over. In his masterful opinion for the Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Justice Samuel Alito consigned the constitutional right of abortion to the ash heap of history. Alito’s criticisms of Justice Harry Blackmun’s opinion in Roe v. Wade are deep and cutting — and entirely justified. Roe was, Alito wrote, “egregiously wrong from the start.” It was “on a collision course with the Constitution from the day it was decided.” Just so. Dobbs is a monumental accomplishment, but not only by lawyers and judges. Far from it. At any moment since Roe was decided, five able lawyers willing to overturn it could easily have been assembled. The hard part was getting them onto the Supreme Court. Dobbs is the culmination of a half-century of dedicated work by c...

As with any trauma, the negative effects of divorce aren’t easily or quickly “gotten over.” Contrary to popular belief, divorce can and does continue to affect children far into the future, even those who outwardly seem to have “made it” relatively unscathed. Being a child of divorce affects a person’s identity, triggering ontological questions about who he is and his place in the world and generating a deep sense of emotional homelessness. Being a child of divorce affects a person’s future relationships, making it statistically more likely that she will go on to get divorced herself, if she marries at all. Children of divorce are also more likely than those from intact homes to cohabit with a romantic partner, and over half say they lack self-confidence in love relationships. Being a chil...

The readings for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year C, Jesus and St. Paul offer a picture of freedom that cuts against our instincts about what makes us free. Freedom does not mean doing what you want, it means being able to embrace what is best. And to do that, one thing is necessary. The Gospel and Epistle reading paint a picture of radical freedom. The bracing images of freedom Jesus shares tell us who are and who we will be. “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head,” he says. We are companions of Jesus on the open road, free of attachment to physical comfort to share his comfort instead. “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God,” he says. We are the advance crew preparing for the king of the ...

Listen to this story: ROME – In his latest intervention in the Catholic Church in France, Pope Francis has ordered an apostolic visitation of the Archdiocese of Strasbourg, which is set to begin at the end of this month. According to a June 23 press release from the papal embassy in France, the decision was made after the Vatican received information “relating to the pastoral government of the Archdiocese of Strasbourg” and after “hearing the Dicastery for Bishops.” No official reason was given for the visitation, but reports suggest that several complaints have been made against Archbishop Luc Ravel’s management style, which some have said is overly authoritarian, as well as Ravel’s explicitly political support for French President Emmanuel Macron. The visitation, set to begin June 27, wi...

So much for all those mock drafts. To the surprise of everyone outside of the Magic war room, Orlando took Paolo Banchero no. 1, after weeks and weeks of reports suggesting Jabari Smith Jr. was the surefire top pick. Plenty of ripple effects spread from there. Who ended up on top? Our NBA staff runs through all of the biggest movers and shakers of the night with another edition of NBA draft Winners and Losers: Winner: Detroit Pistons Chris Ryan: One of the joys of the second half of the past NBA season was watching how Cade Cunningham never let any defense speed him up. So what did Detroit do in the 2022 draft? Grab a guy who can’t be slowed down. Cade will win Detroit some playoff games, eventually. But Jaden Ivey will put some asses in seats and kick the Pistons up any League Pass rankin...

In December 2021 and May 2022, I had the pleasure of teaching a mini-course in Rome, exploring the life and thought of St. John Paul II. My students came from a cross-section of world Catholicism and offered a range of insights from different local Churches in our discussions. They were, however, uniformly surprised and disturbed by something I brought to their attention. Vatican II, I explained, had rightly called for a renewal of Catholic moral theology. What had followed, sadly, was the deconstruction of Catholic moral theology, to the point where prominent moral theologians were claiming that there was no such thing as an “intrinsically evil act:” an act that is gravely wrong by its nature, always and everywhere, irrespective of the actor’s intentions and the act’s consequences. I then...

On Friday, June 24, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is particularly special this year, for two reasons.  First, June 24 is normally every year the Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist, basically six months before Christ’s birth. But since the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart takes place on the Friday after Corpus Christi, this year the celebration of the birth of the Lord’s precursor was moved to June 23. This shows the importance of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart not just as an historical devotion but as a celebration of the Lord Jesus himself. John the Baptist’s words, “He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:30), also apply liturgically.  The second reason why this year’s celebration is special is because it is taking place at ...