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, and the inaugural Senior Research Fellow (2020–22) at Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government. 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 and the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS).
His bylined work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, First Things, National Review, The American Spectator, The Catholic Thing, Crisis, This World, America, Commonweal, the New York Times Sunday magazine, Christian Science Monitor, and other national and foreign outlets. His book True Confessions: Voices of Faith from a Life in the Church, will be released by Ignatius Press in early 2024.
A Clean, Well-Lighted Place
Francis X. Maier
My favorite – I use that word very loosely – portrait of damnation comes from Ernest Hemingway, a man not known for his religious sensibilities.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / June 9, 2022
People Are Decisive
Francis X. Maier
We’re living through a sea change in our culture and self-understanding.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / May 31, 2022
Dinner with a Long Spoon
Francis X. Maier
As Christians, we have a duty to engage the world, including our nation’s public life.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / May 11, 2022
Why We Hunger for Beauty
Francis X. Maier
Beauty is an affirmation of our shared human dignity. It reminds us of life’s goodness in an age of transgressive narcissism and repudiation of the past.
Articles
First Things / May 2, 2022
True Confessions
Francis X. Maier
True Confessions is an exercise, unintended, in true instruction.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / April 28, 2022
The Lens of Holy Thursday
Francis X. Maier
In an open letter to the German episcopate, 80 bishops voiced their strong concern over the direction of Germany’s “Synodal Path.”
Articles
First Things / April 14, 2022
The Simplicity of Father Stu
Francis X. Maier
It’s a gift to sit through a religiously-themed film today that leaves no taste of artificial sweetener in the mouth. And that’s why Father Stu should not be missed.
Articles
First Things / April 12, 2022
70 Bishops Warn of Germany’s “Synodal Path”
Francis X. Maier
What happens in Germany will not stay in Germany.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / April 12, 2022
Our “Land of the Free” Today
Francis X. Maier
The war in Ukraine has all the elements of an exceptionally vivid videogame. . .except that real people are really fighting and dying.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / March 17, 2022
Selling Murder
Francis X. Maier
The short film Forgive Us Our Trespasses is a memorable reminder of the sins of the past and a stark warning to us in the present.
Articles
The Catholic Things / March 5, 2022