Pope Francis has returned to his Creator. After more than twelve years on the Chair of Peter, he leaves behind a Church in transition and a ministry that drew global attention but also stirred tensions. We spoke with Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller about the spiritual legacy of this pontificate, the
The idea of teleology sits uneasily with the contemporary reductionist science that has been so successful in finding mechanisms in nature and inspiring technological progress. The final cause, the purpose or end (telos), is one of Aristotle’s four causes, along with the material, formal, and efficient causes. In Aristotle’s example,
In 2025, we mark the seventeen-hundredth anniversary of the first ecumenical council, convoked by Constantine in the city of Nicaea on the coast of Asia Minor in 325. The socio-political factors surrounding that event, the happenings and outcome of the council itself, and the subsequent wrangling over its ratification are
As we remember Pope Francis, the challenge is that we do so without prejudice, seeking those moments in which he showed us things we had overlooked or completely forgotten, in which he instructed us in word and deed. Two works of mercy summon every Catholic as we pray and prepare
In his beautiful treatment of the resurrection in the Summa theologiae, Thomas Aquinas writes that one of the reasons why Christ had to rise from the dead is to “confirm our faith in his divinity” (ST IIIa, q. 53, a. 1) Christ’s resurrection—and his prior raising of Lazarus—are miracles that
It seems that everyone from industry is finding Artificial Intelligence (AI) to be useful. Even skeptics of AI are softening to the idea that AI can make work easier. People are confessing that they are using AI to write their emails, to help them set the tone, or to pitch
Saint Mark tells us in his Gospel that as the disciples came down from the Mount of the Transfiguration, they were discussing among themselves what “rising from the dead” could mean (see Mark 9:10). A little earlier, the Lord had foretold his passion and his resurrection after three days. Peter
If the case against God’s goodness almost always references the Holocaust, this argument almost always references the Inquisition. Whatever the notional benefits of religious membership, how can one reasonably subject one’s life and choices to institutions that are responsible for so much intolerance and bloodshed, so many benighted centuries of