Francis X. Maier
Senior Fellow
Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. Maier’s work focuses on the intersection of Christian faith, culture, and public life, with special attention to lay formation and action.
Francis X. Maier is a senior fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. Maier’s work focuses on the intersection of Christian faith, culture, and public life, with special attention to lay formation and action.
Mr. Maier served as senior adviser and special assistant to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., for 23 years in Denver and Philadelphia. He previously served as editor in chief of the National Catholic Register, and as a story analyst and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. A graduate of the University of Notre Dame and New York University’s School of the Arts, he is a former fellow of the American Film Institute’s Conservatory for Advanced Film Studies. He is a cofounding board member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Collegium Institute for Catholic Thought and Culture, and a board member of the Napa Institute.
His bylined work has appeared in First Things, National Review, The American Spectator, Crisis, This World, America, Commonweal, the New York Times Sunday magazine, Christian Science Monitor, and other national and foreign outlets.
Memory and Gratitude
Francis X. Maier
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.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / December 9, 2020
People of the Lie
Francis X. Maier
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.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / November 14, 2020
The New Colonialism
Francis X. Maier
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.
Articles
First Things / November 5, 2020
Why the Digital Mob Fears the Power of Little-Read Books
Francis X. Maier
Modern technology obscures both the past and the future by locking us in the frenzies of the present and interfering with reflective thought.
Articles
National Catholic Register / October 29, 2020
Faith, Reason, and Catholic Political Engagement
Francis X. Maier
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.
Articles
The Catholic World Report / October 29, 2020
Philadelphia and the New “Tolerance”
Francis X. Maier
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.
Articles
First Things / October 26, 2020
Until We Rest in Him
Francis X. Maier
I’ve been dreading this November for the past year. In half a century of voting, I’ve been worried or frustrated by our public life many times. But 2020 has a unique toxicity, as if the whole nation were heaving, rudderless, on an ocean of poisonous blame.
Articles
First Things / October 20, 2020
If You Sup With The Devil
Francis X. Maier
The current pontificate’s outreach to China is, for Mr. Lai Chee Ying, fatally flawed at the expense of China’s Christian believers.
Articles
First Things / October 9, 2020
Raised by Wolves
Francis X. Maier
What’s missing in Raised by Wolves, as in so much of modern science fiction, is precisely anything resembling or ennobling the human soul.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / October 8, 2020
It Can’t Happen Here: A Review of Live Not By Lies
Francis X. Maier
Rod Dreher’s new book seeks first to explain what’s reshaping American culture and why; and then to suggest the strategies needed today to live and witness Christian hope, despite the changing terrain.
Articles
The Catholic World Report / October 6, 2020
The Catholic Future
Francis X. Maier
Taking account of the challenges facing the Church in the third millennium, and drawing lessons from the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis, George Weigel systematically outlines the qualities needed in the next successor of Peter in his new book The Next Pope.
Articles
First Things / September 22, 2020
