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EDITOR’S NOTE: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput is the emeritus archbishop of Philadelphia. His books include “Things Worth Dying For: Thoughts on a Life Worth Living and “Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World.” Also recommended: This 2009 lecture and Q&A session with reporters at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, including his thoughts on mainstream media coverage of religion. ————— A free press is part of the American identity. It’s also one of our essential institutions. A responsible press and a faith shaped by the God of charity and justice share two things in common: a concern for human dignity, and an interest in truth. This is why — to be specific — journalism coverage of religion is so important. Believers and non-believers mig...

When I first met Yigal Carmon in November 1988, he was counter-terrorism adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, a position he held under Shamir’s successor, Yitzhak Rabin, until 1993. If memory serves, our meeting took place in a room in the basement of the Israeli Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv. During that conversation, which extended over 90 minutes, I watched Yigal handle calls on three or four different telephones, switching seamlessly from Hebrew to Arabic to English, making what might be life-or-death decisions about reported terrorist threats — and then picking up the threads of our conversation without missing a beat. It was an extraordinary demonstration of grace under pressure. On September 1, 1990, Yigal was my driver to, and guide at, Masada, Herod the Great’s rock...

If you are boarding a plane in much of the United States during winter, chances are the aircraft will need to have a specially trained crew spray it with de-icing fluid before takeoff to remove ice and snow (or prevent more from sticking). Even small amounts of snow, frost, or ice (or ice contaminants, in airline parlance), especially on the wings and tail, are dangerous for airplanes. For one, they add extra weight, which can make it challenging for pilots to do performance calculations, like how fast the plane can climb and if there’s enough runway to clear obstacles. They also interfere with air flow, which reduces lift and could block vents or impede sensors from operating correctly. Simply put, de-icing allows travelers to fly the friendly skies safely during wintery conditions. Here’...

The Gospel readings at Mass continue, without skipping a verse, through the first hours of Jesus’s public ministry as told in the first chapter of St. Mark’s Gospel on the Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B. By watching what Jesus does, we see not only his priorities back then, but his priorities today — because the Second Person of the Trinity is someone whose priorities don’t change.  And what are his priorities? First, gathering disciples (two Sundays ago); second, teaching in the house of worship (last Sunday); and third, entering into family life. It is beautiful to see how Jesus interacts with Peter’s family. After astonishing people there, “On leaving the synagogue, Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.” There are several families intersecting here:...

Candlemas(s), the hard way, and common crime Skip to content Happy Friday friends, And a very happy feast of the Presentation of the Lord to you all.  I’m not one to engage in uninformed speculation about the hidden life of Christ in the Holy Family, but I do love this feast, and the image of Mary and Joseph presenting their miraculous and divine child in the Temple. I have to assume that, being mere mortals, even saintly ones, they had no real or clear conception of what, if anything, they were meant to do to prepare Christ for manhood and his mission. But absent any instructions to the contrary, they relied on the simple, humble practice of their faith — including its rituals and traditions — in the expectation that God would meet them there. As He surely did. For myself, as an admi...