In the few days since the issuing of Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, _Magnifica Humanitas_ , many across the globe are responding to this 42,000-plus-word document, including technology leaders, investors, CEOs, theologians, lawyers, politicians, and more. While many Catholic voices have praised the encyclical for its guidance concerning artificial intelligence and the proper use of technology,…

If Catholic social thought (CST) is to be an instrument of evangelization, as the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, citing _Centesimus Annus, 54_ says, then surely it must place “the human person and society in relationship with the light of the Gospel.” This cannot be done without reference to man’s sinful nature. Coherent notions of dignity, justice, social concerns, and all the…

In a recent critical essay inveighing against the excesses of the Trump presidency and decrying Christians who presumably glory in those excesses, Taylor University professor Ed Meadors argues that “authentic” Christianity must be differentiated “from the fraudulent practices and deplorable propaganda that daily characterizes the misconduct of President Donald Trump, whose self-worship and…

A civilized society should be able to acknowledge four truths simultaneously: Hamas is guilty of atrocities and aims to commit more; Palestinian civilians have suffered terribly; Israel’s actions in Gaza and the West Bank are not beyond criticism; and that the Jews must not once again become a nation without a state.

Too much of the West now seems unable to do this. In February 2026, Gallup…

In its splendor, the second temple in Jerusalem that Jesus would have seen was far more magnificent than the more modest edifice—however miraculous in provenance—constructed by those Jewish exiles whose return to Jerusalem from Babylon is retold in the closing chapters of Second Chronicles and in Ezra and Nehemiah. The temple of Jesus’ day was one element of a reconstruction plan of astonishing…

On March 1 in his monthly prayer intention and address at St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo solemnly expressed his “deep concern” over “what is happening in the Middle East and in Iran during this tumultuous time.” “Stability and peace,” he reassured his audience, “are not achieved through mutual threats, nor through the use of weapons, which sow destruction, suffering, and death.” Rather, they are…