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, was released by Ignatius Press in early 2024.
Faithful Laity, More Priests
Francis X. Maier
Committed and vibrant laity are crucial if we want more priests.
Articles
First Things / May 9, 2024
The Nature of the Moment
Francis X. Maier
The next time we’re tempted to bash bishops, it might be worth remembering the burdens they bear for us.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / May 8, 2024
Toward a Confessing Church, Revisited
Francis X. Maier
Without the biblical God, we invariably end up with a disguised form of idolatry. And it usually involves politics, because politics is about getting and using power.
Articles
The Catholic World Report / April 25, 2024
The Face of God
Francis X. Maier
Ugliness kills the spirit and explains the impulse for desecration that infects so much of modern “art.”
Articles
The Catholic Thing / April 24, 2024
Notes on the Man from Kerioth
Francis X. Maier
The Church, like any human institution, is comprised of people. And each of those people, including ourselves, is a sinner, from plumber to pope, with the sin of greed high on the popularity list.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / March 27, 2024
The ‘Our’ in Our Democracy
Francis X. Maier
“Our democracy” is on the brink of a theocratic coup. “Our democracy” is being hijacked by racists, fascists, homophobes, and misogynists.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / March 13, 2024
The Needs of the Vatican Tomorrow
Francis X. Maier
The anonymity of the text, however reasonable its motives, inevitably weakens its effect and opens it to criticism.
Articles
First Things / March 5, 2024
Toward a Confessing Church
Francis X. Maier
We confess our sins, but we also confess our faith in Jesus Christ and his Church. In Baptism, Christians are made “confessors” by nature. It’s our vocation.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / February 28, 2024
True Confessions
Francis X. Maier
The Church has always had a pattern of lapsing into atrophy and catastrophe, and then being restored by her saints.
Articles
What We Need Now / February 20, 2024
On the Sermon of an Agnostic
Francis X. Maier
Georges Bernanos ignored the theologically puffed up; loved the everyday believer; and wrote for the simple, faithful Catholic.
Articles
The Catholic Thing / February 14, 2024
Book presents the voices, perspectives of faithful Catholics in U.S.
Francis X. Maier
“I did a lot of interviews,” says Francis X. Maier, author of True Confessions, “103 of them over a 17-month period, all over the country; bishops, priests, permanent deacons, and religious, with a special focus on laypeople. Each had a different perspective but a single unifying theme…”
Articles
The Catholic World Report / February 12, 2024