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As research continues to expose the catastrophic consequences of unreflective social media use—especially but not only for the young, we realize it is emblematic of a deeper problem affecting all of us. Most troubling is that this problem is so normal and so fostered by common attitudes and practices that it grows unnoticed. What is this problem? We consistently turn our attention away from where it belongs. Put otherwise, we live in varying degrees of distraction from what really matters right now in our life. In this splintering within our reason and will and our attention and affection, we are enervated and unstrung. Our relationships suffer. Real peace escapes us. This affects even, perhaps especially, the serious and well-intentioned. We are designed to be concerned about and so atten...

What is at the heart of the success story of the World Villages for Children? Not just a school, not just vocational training, but the Catholic faith. The joy, hope, and faith of the young Sisters of Mary is infectious. The Catholic faith teaches that, with God’s help, we can change—change ourselves, change our families, change our world. I make no claims to be an expert in the church’s ministry to the poor, but after a few mission trips to El Salvador, leading a parish in an economically challenging part of town, and a recent pilgrimage to Mexico, I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. Robert Lupton has worked in urban relief programs for decades, and in his book Toxic Charity he outlines the ways our charitable efforts often sabotage the very people we intend to help. One of the practice...

Among the religious orders dedicated to the contemplative life, the Carmelites have a special role. Carmelite convents are found all over the world. They have given the Church countless saints and models. Many Carmelite convents are now in crisis because they have no vocations. The nuns are dying off. Convent after convent is closing. Each closure represents a tragedy and the end of the convent’s intercession before God for the local community, the Church, and the world. The Convent in Lisieux Is Declining However, the wave of closing is now affecting historical convents—what might be called the order’s crown jewels. Even Saint Therese’s convent at Lisieux, France, is edging toward decline. This cloistered convent was where Saint Therese of the Infant Jesus was formed and sanctified at the...

On Aug. 5, Pope Francis accepted the retirement of Boston Cardinal Seán O’Malley and replaced him with Archbishop-elect Richard Henning, formerly of Providence, Rhode Island.   It was a fitting day. Aug. 5 is the memorial of the dedication of St. Mary Major Basilica, Cardinal Seán’s favorite of the four patriarchal basilicas in Rome and in many ways the center of Rome’s Marian devotion across the centuries and still today. His episcopal motto, Quodcumque dixerit facite, was Mary’s valedictory in sacred Scripture, given to the servants in Cana: “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).   On Aug. 5, through Pope Francis, Christ’s earthly vicar, Cardinal Seán, though a quite vigorous octogenarian, was told it was time to let a younger man fill the jars to the brim. And he characteristi...

By Clement Harrold August 9, 2024 Among the many challenges young men face today, a common one is the struggle with habitual vice, oftentimes in connection with sexual sin. In the face of near-overpowering societal pressures to live a lifestyle of vice and spiritual slavery, what encouragement can today’s aspiring “man of God” (1 Tim 6:11) find in the Scriptures? Before all else, the Bible reminds young men of their desperate need for divine grace. Like St. Mary Magdalene and St. Augustine of Hippo, they must learn that until they abandon themselves completely to Christ, spiritual victory will evade them. Young men must come to the firm conviction that they can’t do this on their own. As St. John Paul II liked to point out, the great saints of history became saints not by conquering the wo...

Rafael Luciani is a professor of theology at the Andrés Bello Catholic University in Caracas, the capital of his home country Venezuela. However, Luciani also advises the Latin American Bishops’ Council CELAM and is an advisor to the Theological Commission of the Synod on Synodality. In an interview with katholisch.de, Luciani explains his understanding of synodality. The theologian considers the image of the Church as the people of God to be central in view of the upcoming changes in the Church. Question: Mr Luciani, the Instrumentum laboris for the second session of the Synod in October has now been published. This makes it clear what the members of the Church Assembly will be dealing with. Does this also mean that the topics that Pope Francis decided in March would be dealt with b...

Skip to content What is the focus of a Catholic vision of renewal for education? Rather than “classical,” our focus should be on the Christian tradition following the Church’s own educational vision. The goal should be to teach from a Catholic worldview, rooted within the great Catholic heritage of thought and culture. Words Made Flesh: The Sacramental Mission of Catholic Education, by R. Jared Staudt (Catholic Education Press, 2024, 200 pages) A sacramental approach to education flows from the Incarnation: “The Word became flesh” (Jn 1:14). The Word (the Logos) is the Truth itself, the one spoken forth by the Father in eternity and through whom all that is made comes into being. Made in the image and likeness of God, human beings have a mind (a logos) like the Word, capable of r...

The artificially hollowed-out reproductive organs of the hyper sexed 1990’s are completed, even perfected, in the neutered version of womanhood presented today. Young women in the generations which followed were offered a narrative surrounding sexuality which heralded freedom from service to their families – enabling promiscuity and empty encounters to become an idol which found little pushback from the secular structure. While charismatic androgyny remained elevated in art and fashion (from Marlene Dietrich to Annie Lennox), the more visible template of womanhood was equally free from maternal nuance. Pamela Anderson’s playmate status was the ideal, progressing to a sculpted and bronzed Baywatch icon. As recently as 2018, Anderson nailed third-wave feminism with a yawn: “a bore … which pa...

Edith’s niece, Max’s trophy, and Bob’s bear Skip to content Pillar subscribers can listen to Ed read this Pillar Post here: The Pillar TL;DR Happy Friday friends,  And a very happy feast of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, or Edith Stein, if you prefer, to you all.  Stein was a towering intellectual and moral figure living in an age that yearned for such people. As an Italian I know once explained to me with great condescension: “She lived through two world wars, you know, the first and the second; she died during the second.”  Well, indeed. But I also want to draw your attention today to Edith’s niece, Eva, who was born with an intellectual disability in Germany in 1915. Growing up in that place, at that time, with that kind of disability, and being a young Jewish woman, ...

Written by Fr Hugh Mackenzie, Chaplain at Westminster Cathedral “Whoever seeks the truth is seeking God, whether consciously or unconsciously”Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross One night in 1921, the 28-year-old Edith Stein stayed up all night reading a book that she had recently discovered. This book was the autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila, a renowned Carmelite saint. Edith was profoundly moved by Teresa’s mystical description of the soul’s connection with the absolute God. The next morning, she declared, “This is the truth,” and was baptized the following year. Soon after, she joined the Carmelite order, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. In making her a patron of Europe in 1999 Pope John Paul II highlighted how her philosophical background in ...

The ecclesiastical propaganda machine created for last October’s Synod on Synodality for a Synodal Church is still grinding away, and it’s getting both tiresome and worrisome. As for tiresome: Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich, SJ, the General Rapporteur of Synods 2023 and 2024, informed us in a June 14 “news” release from the Vatican’s Synod office that “the Holy People of God has been set in motion for mission thanks to the synodal experience.” Well, no, Your Eminence, that’s not quite right. God’s holy people were set in motion for mission by the Lord Jesus two millennia ago, when the apostolic band was instructed to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Mt 28:19). The apostles were confirmed in th...

Over the past two decades, the McGrath Institute for Church Life (MICL) has established itself as a vital “think tank” for the U.S. Catholic Church, helping dioceses across the country tackle pastoral challenges like young-adult disaffiliation and gender dysphoria with faith and creativity. But now, benefactors, faculty and bishops who have been involved with the University of Notre Dame institute are expressing concerns about its future after administrators abruptly announced a coming change to its leadership. On July 18, university Provost John McGreevy told the MICL’s advisory council that Director John Cavadini’s term “ends next summer” after 25 years, according to an email obtained by the Register. “We will begin the process of searching for a new director this fall,” said McGreevy in...