Should the Mass reflect a pope’s personality?

The rich treasure of the monastic life | Jim Graves | "Even though we are contemplatives," says Sister Scholastica Radel of Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, "we don’t always see the result of our prayers. In the next life we’ll see the fruit that our sufferings and prayers have produced."

"Facts" and "values" and darkness at noon | Abp Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap. | An exclusive excerpt from the new book Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World.

The Call to Holiness, the Challenge of Perfection | Carl E. Olson | “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Those words are among the most challenging in the Bible, and I suspect they are among the most avoided and ignored.

The End of the Catholic State? | Joseph G. Trabbic | It is widely accepted that Vatican II rejected Catholic states as the normative ideal, and that this rejection was at the level of an unchanging doctrine. Here are arguments against both propositions.

The “dark heart” of human-robot companionship | Sister Renée Mirkes | The time to carefully examine the ethics of human-robot interaction is now—before it becomes “the new normal.”

Environmental Dogma, Domination, and Dominion | Thomas M. Doran | Why the Church is better served by staying out of the political and ideological weeds, focusing instead on forming societies in relation to the meaning and responsibilities of dominion.

The End of the Road for SNAP? | David F. Pierre, Jr. | After a recent lawsuit from a former SNAP employee alleged kickback schemes with plaintiffs’ lawyers, the leadership of SNAP has abandoned ship

New film portrays dramatic life, inspiring conversion of St. Ignatius of Loyola | Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle | Parishes, schools, and organizations can host their own theatrical screening of "Ignatius of Loyola: Soldier, Sinner, Saint", which is distributed by Ignatius Press.

The Hysterical Media Attacks on Cardinal Burke | Carl E. Olson | Far too many reporters and pundits confirm the observation of G.K. Chesterton in the early 1900s that much journalism is simply "bad journalism" and is "shapeless, careless, and colorless..."

Freemasons and Their Craft: What Catholics Should Know | Sandra Miesel | To see why the Catholic Church has strongly and repeatedly condemned membership in Freemasonry or any of its allied movements requires a glance at Masonic teachings and history.

How Many Faces of Christ? | Dr. Leroy Huizenga | Philip Jenkins' The Many Faces of Christ displays plenty of scholarship and erudition, but suffers from a blurring of textual and theological lines that reveals a problematic reliance on sociology.

The Truth is Not Up for Negotiation | CWR Staff | Cardinal Gerhard L. Müller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the meaning of doctrine and its relationship with personal conscience and the interpretation of "Amoris Laetitia".

A Catholic Populism? | James Kalb | Populism's rejection of institutions and experts means it can identify basic problems excluded from public discussion. It also means that it rarely understands them accurately or knows what to do about them.

Is Liberal Democracy Closer to Communism or Catholicism? | Jerry Salyer | A review of The Demon in Democracy by the Polish philosopher and longtime dissident Ryszard Legutko.

Peter, Trump, and Francis | Carl E. Olson | No pope and no body of bishops have the authority to change, revise, reverse, alter, or fundamentally rework what has been gifted to the Mystical Body of Christ in Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture.

Michael Novak, Rest in Peace | Jay Richards | Novak had an illustrious career as an author, scholar, and educator that began during Vatican II and continued until his final days.

Cardinal Coccopalmerio's blow upon a bruise | Edward N. Peters | The two highest-ranking cardinals in the areas of canonical interpretation are in public, plain, and diametric opposition with each other concerning a crucial canonico-sacramental practice.

Loving God is the key to a lasting, loving marriage | Teresa Tomeo | It took a real crisis to get me to realize that I needed to fall in love with God and reject the world's understanding of happiness so I could work on rebuilding my marriage.

Facebook: Facts or Fury? | Dr. Randall B. Smith | If I thought reading Facebook posts was a way of really listening to my neighbors, especially those who disagree with me, I wouldn’t be tempted as I am to banish it to electronic limbo.

When it comes to liturgy, we're all mutually-enriching mongrels | Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille | One of the many problems with Latin liturgical reform over the last 40 years was being too heavily influenced by German and Swiss sources, and not enough by Byzantine ones.

Should the Mass reflect a pope’s personality? | Nicholas Senz | The liturgy belongs to the whole Church, across time and space; it is not to be manipulated according to the whims of each individual pope.