The other Gettysburg Address you probably haven't heard of...

Profiles of the 17 men who received red hats today from the Holy Father...
Matthew Bunson
On Nov. 19, Pope Francis created 17 new cardinals, the newest members of the College of Cardinals, in a ceremony held in St. Peter’s Square. Thirteen of the new members are cardinal electors, meaning that they are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope should that happen. The cardinals come from 13 different countries...

American elections, bishops' edition: The numbers and the moves backstage...
Sandro Magister
Seven days after the election of Donald Trump to the presidency, the more than two hundred bishops of the United States also went to vote. To elect the one who will preside over them for the next three years. A vote to which they came “as for a referendum on Pope Francis,” in the plain statement of John L. Allen, the top vaticanista in the United States...

How casinos enable gambling addicts...

A populist election and its aftermath...
Fr. George Rutler
Considering how many crucial matters were at stake during the recent election, including the right to life and religious freedom, and confronting the preponderant bias in the media and opinion polls, it did not seem melodramatic to hope for a providential Hand to guide things. Without mistaking optimism for hope, and cautioned by the disappointment that can issue from placing trust in princes or any child of man...

The meanest thing Jesus ever said...
Msgr. Charles Pope
The Gospel from Wednesday’s Mass (Wed. of the 33rd Week – Luke 19:11-27) is known as the “Parable of the Ten Gold Coins.” It has an ending so shocking that, when I read it at Mass some years ago, a young child said audibly to her mother, “Wow, that’s mean!” I’d like to look at it and ponder its shocking ending. Today’s parable is like Matthew’s “Parable of the Talents...

Pope Francis decides not to hold customary meeting of cardinals before consistory...

Mourning the death of a brother...

Dear Netflix: You can entertain me, but you can't buy my joy...

We don't want to pay the price of freedom...
Joseph Pearce
There might be few things on which most people agree but freedom is one of them. Although we might differ over what we understand freedom to be, we all think freedom is a good thing. And yet, truth be told, most of us don’t care as much about it as we say we do or as we think we do. The truth is that freedom comes at a price and most of us don’t want to pay it...

Breaking: Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria moves to restore female deacons...
Deacon Greg Kandra
As I noted earlier, yesterday I took part in a panel discussion with America Media on the subject of deacons in general and women deacons in particular. This morning, one of the panelists, George Demacopoulos, theologian and founding co-director of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University, passed along a timely item from the Orthodox (which has been translated by Google from the original Greek)...

Pope warns business leaders: “To be corrupt is to become a follower of the devil, the father of lies”...

Was Malachi Martin an exorcist or an exhibitionist?

Ballplayer knocks one out of the park (and through the roof) at the Tokyo Dome...

A call from the Pope to the U.S. bishops: “Break down walls and build bridges”...
Rocco Palmo
While each USCCB plenary invariably opens with the sending of a telegram to the Pope to pledge the bench's fidelity and prayers, it is anything but custom that the Roman pontiff issues a reply... This time, however, that has indeed happened. As if the message of the elections needed further hammering home – let alone from the Man in White – Tuesday's closing public session on the Floor saw an unprecedented cameo from the Boss himself...

Falling in love with the historical Church, waking up to the reality...

This 2,500-year-old sword was discovered in China in untarnished condition...