An individual may ask a priest to offer a Mass for several reasons: for example, in thanksgiving, for the intentions of another person (such as on a birthday), or, as is most common, for the repose of ...

In the early martyrologies, three different St. Valentines are mentioned, all sharing Feb. 14 for a feast day. Unfortunately, the historical record is sparse. The first St. Valentine was a priest and ...

Vatican II in Session, Public Domain, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. “The appearance of the church in the modern era shows that in a completely new way it has become a church of heathens, and ...

The stench of their burning is with us yet. The stakes and gibbets where witches perished by the tens of thousands during early modern times still stand in popular imagination. For historians, the ...

The official process for declaring someone a saint is called canonization. Prior to the year 1234, the Church did not have a formal process as such. Usually martyrs and those recognized as holy were ...

Issue: What role did the inquisition play in the Catholic Church? Response: According to Pope John Paul II, The Inquisition belongs to a tormented phase in the history of the Church, which . .

There is a very good reason for every Catholic to know the great works of literature — and that is because the great works of literature help us to know ourselves. This is the reason that we should ...

Dear Faithful of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, To his credit, President Barack Obama has made it a major priority for his administration to ...

One of the most dominant articles of faith pervading the modern curriculum is the notion that children can’t achieve and wont succeed unless they have high self-esteem. In parochial and public schools ...

Last week, you wrote about angels. What about the devil? We hear much about angels, but seem to have forgotten the devil. The Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts, “Behind the disobedient voice, ...

The feeling of spiritual emptiness, or being abandoned by God, is natural in the process of growing closer to Christ. When the world looked at the face of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, it saw pure, ...

Christopher West. Christopher West is a research fellow and faculty member of the Theology of the Body Institute. Christopher has lectured around the world and on a number of prestigious faculties, ...