"Why don't they speak out?" Faced with the savage persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Syria and Iraq, that is a question one often hears as the atrocities of the so-called Islamic State continue in the name of Islam.

New Jesuit center is ground zero for the protection of children in the Catholic Church

Even in Washington there are things more important than politics. There are losses more profound than an election defeat or the failure of a piece of legislation. When we lose someone who reminds us of what is important and what is not, there are lessons for personal, public and religious life. For

Life, death and the home country

The University of Notre Dame website went dark on Feb. 26, its usually lively front page replaced by an image of Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C., and a quotation from him: “I never wanted to be anything but a priest, which is in itself a great and unearned grace. I hope to live and die a priest, not

On Feb. 26, the Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregoire III Laham said, “It is shocking that the whole world” has not responded in a proper way to the ongoing crisis in Syria. He called for international unity against the Islamic State to protect Assyrian Christian villages in northeast Syri

'Moral seduction' in the debate around physician-assisted suicide

I like traditional radio because it’s tied to a person but also because it’s tied to a place.

No one should visit a presidential library expecting to see a balanced assessment.

To Cuba’s CreditRe “A ‘Francis Effect’ in Cuba” (Current Comment, 2/23): Having served as the pastor of two parishes in Santa Clara, Cuba, from 1994 to 1998, I think I ought to point out some errors in this commentary. The editors write that “conditions in the cou

Last year Brittany Maynard's controversial decision to 'die with dignity' captured the national imagination and rekindled the contentious debate over the right to die.

The chaos in South Africa’s Parliament on Feb. 12—the expulsion of one party and the walkout of a number of others during President Jacob Zuma’s annual State of the Nation address—was arguably the worst moment in the history of South Africa’s legislature. The spectacle

How we define poverty has political implications.

'I hope we show the church as something more than an entity that needs to be tamed.'

When it comes to the Synod questionnaire there rsquo s one more question to consider What rsquo s everyone else in the rest of the world doing What other treasures or long-abandoned mine shafts are out there to find I spent the last few days looking around Here rsquo s what I found The Pacific

The cross was, basically, state-sponsored terrorism, and it did indeed terrify people.

Aid official says Gazans' situation worse than during war

Pope Francis is a radical reformer who is facing enemies—inside and outside of the church—opposed to at least some parts of his agenda, said a prominent church historian.Massimo Faggioli, an expert on the Second Vatican Council and the author of several books, said the pope is not a libe

Speaking at a university conference is always a near occasion of pretentiousness.

March 3, 2015Santa MartaGod “generously forgives” those who “learn to do good,” but what he doesn’t forgive is “hypocrisy and fake saints,” said Pope Francis at Mass Tuesday morning in Casa Santa Marta chapel.Pope Francis said that there has never been any d