John Madden, a Happy Death and the Communion of Saints

Father Raymond J. de Souza is the founding editor of Convivium magazine. COMMENTARY: As football fans prepare to mark another Super Bowl Sunday, we can learn two lessons from the late John Madden we might take for Christian discipleship. At the annual National Football League awards presentation, it is customary to recall those who have recently died in a combined video montage. This past Thursday though, one man was singled out for a special feature: John Madden. Madden coached the Oakland Raiders for 10 seasons from 1969-1978, won a Super Bowl, and achieved the best winning percentage of any coach in NFL …

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Cardinal Müller: For Faithful Catholics, It’s a ‘Time of Tribulation and Psychological Terror’

Edward Pentin began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN’s National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter …

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St. Irenaeus of Lyon: Getting to know the new Doctor of the Church

Peter John McGregor is a lecturer in dogmatic theology and spirituality at the Catholic Institute of Sydney, Australia. Why has Pope Francis chosen Irenaeus to be our latest Doctor, and why will he name him Doctor of Unity? To answer these questions, we must look at this life and accomplishments. On 7th October 2021, Pope Francis announced that he planned to name St. Irenaeus of Lyon as the 37th Doctor of the Church, giving him the title “Doctor of Unity”. And this past Friday, he declared St. Irenaeus the 37th Doctor of the Church, with the title “Doctor Unitatis” (“Doctor of Unity”). “May the doctrine …

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Combatting lies about sex abuse and the Catholic Church

Casey Chalk is a contributor for Crisis Magazine, The American Conservative, and New Oxford Review. He has degrees in history and teaching from the University of Virginia and a master’s in theology from Christendom College. When it comes to sexual abuse allegations, no other organization is held to the same standard of scrutiny as that of the Catholic Church. We hear a lot these days about systemic, oppressive power structures that damage various racial, sexual, or gender identity groups. These institutions, we are told, perpetuate racism or “unconscious bias” against persons of color. Others enable the patriarchy, cisgender norms, or “heteronormativity.” Whatever the …

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Cardinal Müller: “Behind the euthanasia movements is the negation of God…”

“Behind the facade of beautiful emancipation propaganda,” says Cardinal Gerhard Müller in a detailed interview, “hides the pure will to power based on the social Darwinist principle: the law is on the side of the strongest.” Editor’s note: On January 12, 2022, Cardinal Gerhard Müller was interviewed by Lothar C. Rilinger for kath.net. That interview was translated for CWR by Frank Nitsche-Robinson and is published here in full. In the summer of 2021, the European Parliament passed the Matic Report by a large majority – albeit against the votes of the Conservative and Christian Democrat groups – according to which, among other things, …

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“What shall I do, sir?”: On the conversion of Saint Paul

Carl E. Olson is editor of Catholic World Report and Ignatius Insight. He is the author of Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead?, Will Catholics Be “Left Behind”?, coeditor/contributor to Called To Be the Children of God, co-author of The Da Vinci Hoax (Ignatius), and author of the “Catholicism” and “Priest Prophet King” Study Guides for Bishop Robert Barron/Word on Fire. His recent books on Lent and Advent—Praying the Our Father in Lent (2021) and Prepare the Way of the Lord (2021)—are published by Catholic Truth Society. He is also a contributor to “Our Sunday Visitor” newspaper, “The Catholic Answer” magazine, “The Imaginative Conservative”, “The Catholic Herald”, “National …

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Faith and Reason Environmentalism

Thomas M. Doran is the author of the Tolkien-inspired Toward the Gleam (Ignatius Press, 2011), The Lucifer Ego, and Kataklusmos (2020). He has worked on hundreds of environmental and infrastructure projects, was president of Tetra Tech/MPS, was an adjunct professor of engineering at Lawrence Technological University, and is a member of the College of Fellows of The Engineering Society of Detroit. Most public voices, especially the loudest voices, keep hammering at a disingenuous two-track narrative. But there is a third and better way. When it comes to planet Earth, climate change, the environment, the popular narrative describes two tracks: those who know the world is in …

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Educating for what matters most

R. Jared Staudt PhD, serves as Associate Superintendent for Mission and Formation for the Archdiocese of Denver and Visiting Associate Professor for the Augustine Institute. He is the author of Restoring Humanity: Essays on the Evangelization of Culture (Divine Providence Press) and The Beer Option (Angelico Press) and the editor of Renewing Catholic Schools: How to Regain a Catholic Vision in a Secular Age (Catholic Education Press). He and his wife Anne have six children and he is a Benedictine oblate. Catholic schools exist for a fundamental purpose, as they are called to help our young Catholics to reach the goal of life: true happiness in God. …

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Russia, Ukraine, and moral reckoning

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies. He is the author of over twenty books, including Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II (1999), The End and the Beginning: Pope John Paul II—The Victory of Freedom, the Last Years, the Legacy (2010), and The Irony of Modern Catholic History: How the Church Rediscovered Itself and Challenged the Modern World to Reform. His most recent books are The Next Pope: The Office of Peter and a Church in Mission (2020), and Not Forgotten: Elegies for, and Reminiscences of, a Diverse …

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Disobey and you’ll get your way

Peter M.J. Stravinskas is the editor of The Catholic Response, and the author of over 500 articles for numerous Catholic publications, as well as several books, including The Catholic Church and the Bible and Understanding the Sacraments For fifty years “liberal” disobedience and disregard for liturgical norms most often resulted, not only in no punishment, but in having disobedience enshrined in law. In my senior year of high school, I was taking fourth-year Latin and third-year French; in the latter course, Sister Maria Gemma offered us a proposal: If we completed the whole textbook before semester’s end, she would give us a treat (which she …

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