Over the first several weeks of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has staked out a deliberate perimeter of emphases that appears to encompass the dominant theme of his pontificate. The first stake in the ground was the choice of his name. Beginning with Pope St. Leo I—also known as Leo …

August begins the annual ritual of children dragging their parents to the shopping mall for new clothes, backpacks and sneakers, in preparation for their return to classrooms, playgrounds and athletics fields. The nervous anticipation of going “back to school” is as common to the American experience of growing up as …

Genres of dramatic or literary works are identified in multiple ways, but one of the most common ways distinguishes between tragedy and comedy. In this dichotomy, the Gospel begins with aspects of tragedy but ends with a comedic resolution. A tragic work is one in which an intractable problem either …

In his 1988 song “Death is Not the End,” Bob Dylan wrote, “When you’re standing on the crossroads / That you cannot comprehend / Just remember that death is not the end / And all your dreams have vanished / And you don’t know what’s up the bend / Just …

The object of work is similar to the object of playing golf. Who is happier at the end of a round of golf: the person who hit the ball 100 times or the one who only hit it 85 times? We all know the answer. The object of golf is …

Over the past 15 years, since December 21, 2009, His Excellency Dennis M. Schnurr has served as the Archbishop of Cincinnati. He is succeeded by the 11th bishop of Cincinnati, His Excellency Robert G. Casey. Because Cincinnati is a metropolitan archdiocese, Archbishop Schnurr has also served as chairman of the …

Lent is a season of moral and spiritual growth. For some, the principal approach is to deprive oneself of non-essential goods; we give up some pleasure or luxury. Others observe Lent by performing spiritual or corporal works of mercy; we add some activity or assume some burden. And, of course, …

In August 2024, Pope Francis promulgated his Letter on the Role of Literature in Formation. He explains that he wrote the letter to promote “the value of reading novels and poems as part of one’s path to personal maturity.” Reading fiction, the Holy Father argues, “can help us weather the …

The story of Cain and Abel is among the more famous episodes in the Bible. We are all acquainted with this account of the first murder—indeed, the first fratricide—by which the bonds of brotherly love and responsibility were torn asunder. What we do not know, however, is what Cain said …

Among the rich and wonderful mysteries of the Incarnation is the intersection of time by eternity. Or perhaps the better formulation is that the Incarnation introduces a different kind of time from the chronological time by which we order our hours, days, weeks, months and years. This everyday account of …