Francis X. Maier

Innovation is part of the special American genius. But real progress is never merely material; unless it also ennobles the human spirit, it isn’t “progress” at all.

The latest book by retired Archbishop Charles Chaput offers his most memorable and moving work.

The extraordinary fact of Catholic life in the United States is not the few bishops who humiliate us so bitterly, but the many who do the job so well

Hope feeds and grows on the experience of love, the will to persist in that love, and the letting go of anger, no matter how vicious or lunatic the times.

When we really believe what we claim to believe, we conform our hearts, our minds, our choices, and our actions – both in private and in public – to the convictions we claim to hold.  Otherwise, we’re liars.

In the sacred space of our conscience and our personal choices, none of us is powerless, and no life, no matter how obscure or limited, is inconsequential. How we live our lives matters.

Until we suffer for what we believe, or have our hearts changed by the witness of others who suffer, our faith is untested and aspirational; a matter of good intentions.

Donald Trump may have teased and fed the nation’s spirit of conflict, but he didn’t create it. And Trump’s exit won’t heal any of our deepest fractures.

What may be coming our way is an odd kind of “new colonialism,” with flyover country—that Dark Continent formerly known as places like Kansas, Alabama, and Tennessee—reduced in effective power to mission territory for our enlightened coastal elites.

Modern technology obscures both the past and the future by locking us in the frenzies of the present and interfering with reflective thought.

What the Church expects us to do in this and every election is to follow our consciences—but also to form our consciences intelligently, in accord with Christian truth.

A vast amount of ink has been spilled in recent years arguing for “diversity” and “tolerance” in American society. Some of these arguments are admirable and sincere. Some are cynical and vindictive. The latter applies in Philadelphia.