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.

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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.

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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

Pro Deo et Patria

Francis X. Maier

For many families, the storm clouds currently gathering over Ukraine stir up some poignant memories.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / February 14, 2022

Ukraine and the Western Conscience

Francis X. Maier

The idea that Ukrainians might forget or ignore the memory of Russian criminality in their country, for the sake of a dubious peace, is ludicrous.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / January 27, 2022