Over the centuries, theological debates and conflicts within the Catholic Church have often had political implications of general interest. The pressure being exerted on Pope Leo to reinstate the option of celebrating the Catholic liturgy according to the rite that preceded that of the Second Vatican Council poses a significant challenge to the Catholic Church’s […]
Thiel, Pope Benedict, and the Fate of U.S. Catholicism
Thiel misunderstands Ratzinger. The project of “pure Church” failed. A Pope at the service of a US President would harm the US and the Church. But perhaps the Church can help the US and world find a new balance when the old one is gone. In an article published in First Things, Peter Thiel continues […]
Pope Leo in the Footsteps of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin
In his messages to the United States on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Pope Leo XIII builds upon Cardinal J. Bernardin’s discourse on a consistent ethics of life in order to define the position of the Catholic Church in the face of major moral and social challenges. It was […]
U.S. Catholicism in the Vise of the Lefebvrian Schism
American conservative Catholics could help steer the presidency away from the losing battle of the “culture wars” and toward a pragmatic and substantial Trump’s political revolution. Following the episcopal ordinations performed by the Lefebvrian Society of St. Pius X, the Holy issued a decree of excommunication formalizing the schism. Excommunicated are all bishops, priests, and […]
Pope Leo: Human Dignity in the Digital Age (Part Two)
Artificial intelligence and the digital systems on which it is based represent a total environment — the world, plain and simple — in which machines produce culture rather than human beings. The humanistic challenge lies in shaping a way of inhabiting this (digital) world, begetting culture through practices of love that enable each individual to […]
Pope Leo: Human Dignity in the Digital Age (Part One)
Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical offers theological and humanistic insights into the potential and risks of artificial intelligence for human dignity. It is also a declaration of the “dream of a new modernity,” in which the Catholic Church, nations, peoples, and international institutions collaborate to create ways of inhabiting the world that are worthy of […]
Trump, Bishops, and Sacred Heart
Donald Trump launched his campaign to “re-Americanize” America with two moves that immediately put him on a collision course with even the Catholic bishops most aligned with his policies. These moves were a crackdown on undocumented immigrants and a restrictive interpretation and of ius soli regarding the right to U.S. citizenship. In his second term […]



