Michael J. O’Loughlin

nbsp The Vatican rsquo s portraitist and official court painter is the Russian born Orthodox believer Natalia Tsarkova who has painted Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI among others She gave a brief video interview to the BBC in which we see her pet owl and is profiled in an article from AFP

As a member of the so-called millennial generation myself I rsquo m always interested to hear the thoughts of my contemporaries on issues of faith and culture A new e-journal Millennial offers an online home to Catholic writers in their 20s and 30s to explore a vast array of topics including po

One of the more interesting aspects of the Catholic Church rsquo s involvement in civic life is that it cannot be comfortably placed anywhere along the left-right political spectrum at least in an American context Just days ago I posted about Pope Benedict rsquo s widely-reported comments on same

Pope Benedict XVI used his important Christmas address to the Roman Curia in part to attack gains made by same-sex marriage advocates around the world especially in the United States in November and to contribute to a debate raging in France From USA Today Gay marriage denies God and devalues hum

nbsp A member of the Knights of Columbus writes on the Washington Post rsquo s website that the fraternal organization led by a former Reagan staffer is suffering from an image problem and misplaced priorities a situation putting the future of the organization at risk Anthony Stevens-Arroyo wri

The Catholic Church in the US made the front-page many times in 2012 With a presidential election in November it was no surprise that many of the stories that grabbed our attention related to politics I asked a group of Catholics mdash priests nonprofit heads campus ministers students writers

At the University of Notre Dame gay and lesbian students will soon have a campus-wide organization responding to their needs while the Catholic University of America announced yesterday it would not accept student-driven drive for such a group Notre Dame following a months-long review process an

Numbers from the 2011 census in the United Kingdom show that a majority 59 identify as Christian and 25 claim no religion nbsp Just 10 years ago 73 said they were Christian and only 14 reported having no religion From the BBC nbsp A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of E

The General Social Survey a comprehensive questionnaire perennially studying the habits and demographics of Americans asks participants about their views on the afterlife From Chicago Magazine in 1983 and 1984 the people running the GSS decided to ask people about their visions of the afterlif

Pope Benedict XVI joined Twitter today choosing the handle Pontifex and amassing hundreds of thousands of followers in just a nbsp few hours all without composing a single tweet the inaugural tweet will be published next Wednesday The New York Times reports Benedict rsquo s posts will go ou