Christians in the United States who imagined that, whatever tribulations or hardships they have to endure, they would not include speeches by the president of the United States and the policies of the United States government had better reconsider, in light of President Barack Obama’s April 26 address to the annual Planned Parenthood Gala at Washington’s Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.

Some 23 years ago, Ambassador Max Kampelman—former nuclear arms reduction negotiator with the Soviet Union and Counselor to the Department of State—decided that I needed a bit of diplomatic experience and invited me to be a public member of the U.S. delegation he would lead to the Copenhagen meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, in the summer of 1990.

It was a brief greeting to former colleagues. But if you read Pope Francis’ April 18 letter to the Argentine bishops’ conference closely, you get a glimpse of the man, his convictions and his vision.

Baseball and movies don’t often play well together...

The recent papal interregnum and conclave underscored the importance of re-forming, and reforming, the College of Cardinals.

April 10, 2013 - Certain ritual encounters have now become standard operating procedure for a new pope. In each of these meetings, Pope Francis has done something surprising, in his low-key, gentle way.

April 3, 2013 - If the conclave of 2005 was about continuity—extending the legacy of John Paul II by electing his closest theological advisor as his successor—the conclave of 2013 was about governance.

In a Sistine Chapel homily, given to the cardinals who had elected him pope the evening before, the new bishop of Rome, reflecting on the dialogue between Jesus and Peter at Caesarea Philippi (Matt 16:13-25), challenged those who had just laid a great cross on his shoulders to deepen their own commitment to Christ crucified...

March 20, 2013 - ROME—When Pope Francis stepped out onto the central loggia of St. Peter’s on the night of March 13, I thought of the man I had met in his Buenos Aires office 10 months before: Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., who was looking  forward to laying down the burden of leadership and devoting himself to prayer, reflection and study.

Jan. 16, 2013 - In his acute analysis of the character and institutions of the United States, 'Democracy in America,' Alexis de Tocqueville, a 19th-century French liberal, stressed the importance of what we call 'civil society.'

May 2, 2012 - I recently spent several pleasant hours contemplating ceramics, furniture, and—would you believe it?—wallpaper. But not at Home Depot, I quickly add; rather, in a book—'Pugin: A Gothic Passion,' published in 1994 by Yale University Press in association with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
 

April 25, 2012 - One does wonder, sometimes, just what goes on at Catholic News Service (CNS), an agency that wouldn't exist were it not for the U.S. bishops and the bishops' conference.

April 28, 2012 - History being linear, “What if….?” is an unanswerable question—but always a fascinating on, especially when the question concerns religion and culture. There are many “What ifs” that could be asked regarding Christianity and its presence - or lack thereof - in China.

April 11, 2012 - Given the specter of James Buchanan, the question of whether Jimmy Carter was the worst president in the history of the Republic must remain unresolved; yet there is no doubt that Carter is the worst ex-president ever. Having failed to convince his countrymen to re-elect him, he has spent his post-presidency explaining to the world what is wrong with his countrymen, and his country, in a pathetic attempt at self-vindication.

April 4, 2012 - Christmas occupies such a large part of the Christian imagination that the absolute supremacy of Easter as the greatest of Christian feasts may get obscured at times.

March 28, 2012 - Mary Eberstadt is my friend, but I’ll risk charges of special pleading and self-plagiarism by quoting my endorsement on the dust jacket of her new book, Adam and Eve after the Pill (Ignatius Press).

March 21, 2012 - Cardinal Dolan is a man of formidable intelligence, a historian trained in the school of the late John Tracy Ellis, dean of the classic historians of Catholicism in the United States.

March 14, 2012 — To be sure, Americans of conviction and conscience are not under the same threats that made a martyr of Shahbaz Bhatti in Pakistan a year ago. But religious freedom is, nonetheless, under assault in these United States. The assault is both cultural and legal.

March 7, 2012 - On Feb. 6, Queen Elizabeth II marked her diamond jubilee, an achievement that Great Britain will celebrate throughout 2012. I am not a monarchist, but I’ll happily join in saluting the Queen, who embodies several qualities that are in short supply among 21st-century public figures.

Feb. 29, 2012 -  The bishops of the Church make no attempt to speak for all Catholics; they never have. The bishops speak for the Catholic and apostolic faith, and those that hold that faith gather around them. Others disperse. The recent Health and Human Services mandate illustrates this phenomenon.

Feb. 22, 2012 - Bad habits built up over decades are as hard to break in liturgy as they are in any other facet of life. So it will take awhile for the nobility of the new Mass texts to elicit a similar nobility of manner from celebrants who have acquired bad habits over the years.

But as Lent is an appropriate time for addressing bad habits, here’s a suggestion for all priest-celebrants: make a Lenten resolution—This Lent, I will do the red and read the black. Period.

Feb. 15, 2012 - The Obama administration's recently-announced HHS (Department of Health and Human Services) regulations, which would require Catholic institutions to subsidize health insurance coverage that provides sterilization, abortifacient drugs and contraceptives, should be located within the context of the administration's three-year-long effort to define religious freedom down.

Feb. 8, 2012 - There are many good arguments against quickly convening a Third Vatican Council—a notion beloved of Catholics who occupy the portside cabins on the Barque of Peter.

Feb. 1, 2012 - On the solemnity of the Epiphany, I heard a sermon—a rather well-delivered one at that—about the Magi as religious “seekers.”  But isn’t there something a bit askew here? Isn’t the point of Matthew’s tale of the “Wise Men from the East” (Matt 2:1) that they were finders, not just seekers?

Jan. 25, 2012 - The Hebrew Bible is not for the squeamish. And its harshest maledictions are called down upon those who practiced the abomination of child-sacrifice. Thirty-nine years after Roe v. Wade created an unrestricted abortion license in the United States, all Americans ought to ponder the ancient words of the psalmists and prophets — and the kind of country to which Roe v. Wade led.

Jan. 18, 2012 - The candidate who can speak with the kind of moral clarity similar to that voiced by Václav Havel about the decisions we face as Americans, is the candidate who should take the presidential oath of office on Jan. 20, 2013.

Jan. 11, 2012 - Why do adults become Catholics? There are as many reasons for “converting” as there are converts.

Jan. 4, 2012 - The point of correcting bad habits is to celebrate the Novus Ordo of Paul VI with dignity and beauty, so that Holy Mass is experienced for what it is: our participation in the liturgy of saints and angels in heaven.