Stephen P. White

Fellow

Stephen P. White is a fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. White’s work focuses on the application of Catholic social teaching to a broad spectrum of contemporary political and cultural issues. He is the author of Red, White, Blue, and Catholic (Liguori Publications, 2016).

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Stephen P. White is a fellow in the Catholic Studies Program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. White’s work focuses on the application of Catholic social teaching to a broad spectrum of contemporary political and cultural issues. He is the author of Red, White, Blue, and Catholic (Liguori Publications, 2016).

Mr. White’s writing has been published in a wide variety of outlets and websites, including: The Weekly Standard, National Review Online, First Things, America Magazine, The Catholic Thing, Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, Magnificat, Vox, and The Catholic Herald (UK).

Since 2005, Mr. White has been coordinator of the Tertio Millennio Seminar on the Free Society, a three week seminar on Catholic social teaching with an emphasis on the thought of St. John Paul II which takes place every summer in Krakow, Poland.

Mr. White studied politics at the University of Dallas and philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He is a graduate of the St. Patrick’s Evangelisation School in London, England.

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A Rough Summer in the Empire State

Stephen P. White

As the unfolding mess in New York shows, dealing with the legal implications of the abuse crisis alone consumes an inordinate amount of the Church’s time and energy, to say nothing of money. Such demands are likely to grow more acute in the short term.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / August 15, 2019

The Virtues of Reform

Stephen P. White

Genuine renewal in the Church requires both paths to reform: structural and administrative changes, as well as ongoing conversion and growth in holiness.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / August 1, 2019

Pray for Poland

Stephen P. White

The drama of the past year in the Church in the United States can sometimes distract from the global dimensions of the crisis of clerical sexual abuse and episcopal malfeasance. In Poland, the Church faces its own scandal of clerical sexual abuse.

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The Catholic Thing / July 18, 2019

Four Take-Aways from Baltimore

Stephen P. White

Given the degree to which episcopal malfeasance is the hallmark of the abuse crisis in its current iteration, and given how much expectation there has been for bishops to “do something” about the crisis, it’s worth looking more closely at the steps that they took at their general assembly in Baltimore last month.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / July 4, 2019

The Long Year

Stephen P. White

It is worth recounting all the pain and anguish and frustration of the past year, because remembering can help strengthen our resolve and vigilance. It is also worthwhile as a reminder that the purgation and renewal of the Church is already underway.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / June 20, 2019

Finish the Job

Stephen P. White

Pope Francis has given the bishops a great opportunity to confront the abuse crisis; they ought to make the most of it by pushing forward with as much determination as ever.

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The Catholic Thing / June 6, 2019

A Solid Foundation for Reform

Stephen P. White

The motu proprio released earlier this month by Pope Francis – Vos estis lux mundi – is not everything the Church in the United States could have hoped for, but it is a good deal more than many expected. And it’s a great lunge forward for the Church globally, much of which still lags far behind the Church in the United States when it comes to the handling of allegations of clerical sexual abuse.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / May 23, 2019

Unfinished Business

Stephen P. White

For ecclesiastical leaders to begin to regain the confidence of their flocks, they’re going to have to find ways to overcome the distrust of one another.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / May 9, 2019

Introducing: The Catholic Project

Stephen P. White

No one needs to be sold on the importance of a robust and faithful response to the Catholic Church’s current sexual-abuse crisis. But if everyone agrees that the Church is in crisis, there’s less agreement about just what the nature of the crisis is, what caused it, or how to fix it. That’s where The Catholic Project comes in.

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The Catholic Thing / April 25, 2019

Time Will Tell

Stephen P. White

Pope Francis is right to be wary of legalistic and bureaucratic “remedies” to what is fundamentally a spiritual and moral crisis. But given everything we know about how episcopal and priestly malfeasance has been handled – or rather, mishandled – in recent decades, there is reason to wonder whether Pope Francis’ highly personal, even ad hoc, pastoral approach to wayward bishops is the most prudent model for the Church today.

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The Catholic Thing / April 11, 2019

See How They Love One Another

Stephen P. White

As the Church takes a hard look at ways to correct for widespread failures in the clergy, and especially the episcopate, she will have to take care to delineate what sorts of changes are theologically and sacramentally permissible and which are not.

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The Catholic Thing / March 28, 2019

New Leadership in Baltimore and Boston

Stephen P. White

It’s worth remembering that reporting mechanisms and systems of accountability, while important, do nothing to address the root of the crisis in the Church, which is fundamentally a crisis of fidelity.

Articles

The Catholic Thing / March 14, 2019