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Fran and Suann Maier, pictured above with their son Dan, were named ‘Knight Commander’ and ‘Dame Commander’ in the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Francis. The papal honors were conferred Dec. 9 by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia. (Top inset photo below courtesy of Francis X. Maier. All other photos by Sarah Webb.) Francis X. Maier, Good Servant of a Good Shepherd “Christianity is fundamentally about friendship,” says the former Register editor in chief and longtime aide to Archbishop Charles Chaput, “and helping each other get to heaven.” In the late 1970s native New Yorker Francis X. Maier made the decision to leave Hollywood screenwriting to focus on writing a novel, The World on the Last Day, about the fall of Saigon. To support his wife and young family and supplement...

Hell is the final guarantee that what we do here and now really matters: That’s the message Paul Thigpen gives in the book Saints Who Saw Hell: And Other Catholic Witnesses to the Fate of the Damned. “If Hell doesn’t exist, then all roads lead to the same destination, whether it’s Heaven, or annihilation, or something else. And if all roads lead to the same place, it ultimately makes no difference which road we take. On the other hand, if our choices will lead us ultimately to one of two utterly different destinies, then our choices have crucially different consequences,” he continues. Reflecting on Hell, Thigpen emphasizes, deepens our appreciation of Heaven. “The more horrible we understand Hell to be, the more deeply we fathom what God wants to save us from, the more grateful we are tha...

With our archives now 3,500+ articles deep, we’ve decided to republish a classic piece each Friday to help our newer readers discover some of the best, evergreen gems from the past. This article was originally published in May 2011.  Last month I met up with an old friend I hadn’t seen in forever to have lunch. Having both read and written about how to be an effective and charismatic conversationalist, I followed the old dictum of listening more than talking and asking the other person engaging questions about themselves. This is supposed to charm your conversation partner. I guess it worked because my friend talked about himself for an hour straight and didn’t ask me a single question. When we’ve talked about the ins and outs of making good conversation before, someone inevitably ask...

In the secular world, a “mystery” is something that baffles or eludes understanding, something that lies undisclosed. And the usual attitude of the world toward mystery is to solve it, get to the bottom of, or uncover it. Mysteries must be overcome! The riddle, or “who-done-it” must be solved! In the Christian and especially the Catholic world, “mystery” is something a bit different. Here, mystery refers to the fact that there are hidden dimensions in things, people, and situations that extend beyond their visible, physical dimensions. One of the best definitions I have read of “mystery” is by the theologian and philosopher John Le Croix. Fr. Francis Martin introduced it to me some years ago in one of his recorded conferences. Le Croix says, Mystery is that which opens temporality and give...

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput sent the following letter to Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan this morning. January 21, 2020 Prime Minister Imran KhanCare of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the United States3517 International Court NW,Washington, DC 20008 Your Excellency: Many Pakistani Catholic families currently live in the Greater Philadelphia region. They are a great blessing to our community. These are very impressive people, grateful for their Pakistani heritage, whose Catholic faith was nourished in Pakistan. However, the hardships now faced by Christians in Pakistan profoundly concern them. On their behalf, I write to you—as their local archbishop, but also as a former Commissioner with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (...

Written by Rob Picheta, CNN “There are no words to express the result” was the beaming reaction of Belgium’s Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, after a 15th-century masterpiece — painted over shortly after completion — was restored to its former glory. And they were right — commentators have been left speechless by one particular aspect of the newly revealed painting. The latest panel of the “Ghent Altarpiece,” a large work by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, was unveiled in December as part of an ongoing project to restore the painting to its original design. The painting — also known as “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” — depicts a lamb, representing Jesus, being sacrificed on an altar. And it’s this holy lamb tha...

People lined up Tuesday outside the Supreme Court ahead of oral arguments in the Montana case. Photo: lawrence hurley/Reuters By Jess Bravin Updated Jan. 22, 2020 4:32 pm ET WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court appeared ready Wednesday to reinstate a Montana program providing state aid to religious schools, after arguments in which conservative justices cited anti-Catholic sentiment in the 19th century that led many states to bar public support for sectarian education. The program at issue was relatively small; it provided up to a $150 tax credit to residents who contributed a like amount to organizations providing scholarships to private schools, whether secular or religious. The Montana Supreme Court struck down the entire program, finding it violated the state constitution’s ban on public suppo...

ROME – Despite the fact that Rome has some 900 Catholic churches, finding one that is open for prayer at any given moment can be quite challenging. Some keep office hours, but most open only around Mass time. Yet as of last December, there is a church that is open 24/7, with Eucharistic adoration and a team of 8 to 10 volunteers who, together with the parish priest, make sure there is always someone available to welcome those who need a helping hand. “This project is not only for poor people,” said Roberta, a volunteer at the Church of the Stigmata of St. Francis, during an open house on Monday to show a recently inaugurated dorm for some 30 homeless people. “If you come here at night one time, you’ll see that there’s always someone here, praying,” she told Crux. “And they are not homeless...

Eric Meola would be the first to admit that shooting dramatic storms in the Great Plains isn’t always glamorous. Horizontal rain hits your face like ice. Baseball-size hail pounds down from the sky. Winds of up to 50 miles per hour threaten to knock you and your tripod to the ground. “You really get a sense of just how unbelievably powerful these storms are,” says Meola, a photographer from upstate New York who has driven 900 miles across the country in a single day to capture them on camera. “The reality is fairly grim.”  The images, though, are stunning. Meola’s decades-long fascination with midwestern superstorms culminated with a photo book, Fierce Beauty: Storms of the Great Plains, published in November. It showcases 105 photographs that Meola took betwe...

As abortion-supporters brace for another year of restrictions and court battles, Planned Parenthood is throwing its weight into the 2020 elections. This week, Planned Parenthood launched the biggest electoral effort in its history: a $45 million spend to support presidential, congressional and state-level candidates in the 2020 elections who support abortion rights. Jenny Lawson, the Planned Parenthood Votes Executive Director, said, “The stakes have never been higher.” “[The Trump Administration} has managed to undo so much over the last three years,” Lawson said in an exclusive interview with CBS News. “The fact that this summer the Supreme Court might gut Roe v. Wade is an indicator of their intention and they’ve never been so bold.” The Battle ...

On one level, this week’s think piece is not about religion. Then again, it is a personal and transparent piece from The Seattle Times — written by GetReligion contributor Julia Duin, a veteran religion-beat professional. It’s a piece about what it’s like to travel with one or more children with “hidden disabilities.” She is talking about PTSD, autism, anxiety disorders and other intense conditions that, to be blunt, may not immediately be obvious to people at nearby restaurant tables, in lines at theater parks or jammed into adjacent airplane seats. OK, what about people of various ages who are settled in for peace and quiet, or even transcendence, in a nearby pew during Mass? So read Duin’s article and picture that scene in your mind. Look for the situations that religious leaders of all...