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Taking the Risk of Freedom
Thirty-five years ago, the son of a great historian helped make history when he asked the question that triggered the demolition of the most grotesquely expressive artifact of the Cold War. My friend...
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The continuing scandal of the Vatican’s China policy
In the annals of historical boorishness, it would be hard to find something more egregious than the Holy See’s timing as it renewed its 2018 agreement with the People’s Republic of China, which allows...
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A great Christian witness, too little known in the West
The Venerable Andrei Sheptytsky, who died eighty years ago on November 1, 1944, was one of 20th century Catholicism’s outstanding figures, whose remarkable life and heroic ministry as leader of the...
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An Open Letter to J.D. Vance
Dear Senator Vance: As Americans celebrate a unique national holiday, the origins of which remind us that our democracy is an experiment in ordered liberty “under God,” let me wish you and your family...
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“Luce,” mascot of dumbed-down Catholicism
During his years as professor of fundamental theology at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, Salvatore “Rino” Fisichella was often cited by American seminarians as their favorite professor – an...
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Books for Christmas – 2024
A friend told me recently that bookstores were making something of a comeback. I hope that’s true, because browsing bookstores is one of life’s great pleasures. (For the ultimate such experience, visit...
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Embassy Vatican: Some Demystifications
A change of presidential administrations typically leads to changes in U.S. diplomatic personnel abroad, especially at the ambassadorial level. This, in turn, leads to speculations, some of them zany,...
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Jimmy and the Patriarch, at Christmas
The post-Christmas liturgical calendar may seem a bit Scrooge-like, as the child-centered, innocent joy of the Nativity is quickly followed by three feasts of a different, even sobering, character....
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Jubilee 2025: New Year’s resolutions and resources
Jubilee 2025 began on Christmas Eve 2024, with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s in Rome, and will conclude on January 6, 2026, when that door of the Vatican basilica is closed. The theme of...
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Stacked decks, “Conversation in the Spirit,” and the Catholic future
Various cultures — English, Turkish, Chinese — claim to have invented the maxim, “The fish rots from the head down” (a favorite in Your Nation’s Capital during the unhappy years when the...
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