Atheist blogger tackles the anti-Catholic legend of the Dark Ages "and other hysterical myths"

St. John the Baptist is a prophet who prepared the people of his time for the coming of Jesus...
Msgr. Charles Pope
Who is “John the Baptist” for us? Surely it is the Church, which Christ founded to prepare a people for him and draw us from darkness to light. But of course we experience the Church, not as an abstraction, but more locally in our Bishop, priests and deacons. Further we experience the Church in our parents and catechists. Through them all...

"Would someone just shut that pope up?"

"By virtue of Baptism and Confirmation we are called to be conformed to Christ": Pope sends message for World Day of the Sick...

Mandela the sinner? Mandela the prophet? Yes, cover both...
Terry Mattingly
One of the greatest mysteries in life is the moral complexity that is often found in the hearts of great men and women who live truly great lives and, even, in their best moments perform great deeds that can be called blessed, or even holy. There is no question that the turning points in the life of Nelson Mandela, the times when he went to the mountaintop...

Syrian Christians; pope-mania; and a looming check-up on Vatican finances...
John Allen
Syria's roll call of missing Christians continues to grow. In April, Islamic militants kidnapped two Orthodox prelates, Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Mar Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi. In July, the same fate befell Italian Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio...

The world's largest monastery library is in Austria and it's beautiful...

Shipwrecked man survives underwater for three days praying psalms...

Pope Francis is an evangelist, plain and simple. But he’s no ordinary evangelist...
Christopher Stefanick
Pope Francis has laid out his plans for the Church in Evangelii Gaudium. Rush Limbaugh read it and has concluded he’s a Marxist. Politically conservative evangelicals fear they’ve lost an ally in the Catholic Church. The pro-gay marriage lobby and Planned Parenthood are disillusioned after reading paragraphs 66 and 213, and rightly so.

Texas school bans Christmas trees, as well as the colors red and green...

10 things you need to know today: December 6, 2013...

The Thing That Used to Be Conservatism has put out a hit on your pope...
Mark Shea
With the publication Evangelii Gaudium, the Rightwingosphere has begun to dial up the panic about Pope Francis. There have been a number of strategies for ignoring, minimizing and downplaying the Exhortation. Rush Limbaugh, for instance, denounced that exhortation as "pure Marxism".

Pope Francis launches new commission for the protection of minors...

How you can have a fear-free marriage...
Brianna Heldt
Be not afraid. Families are specially designed for nurturing children and marriage is particularly ordered towards openness to children, either through the miracle of birth or the miracle of adoption. Shared bedrooms and crowded kitchens and full-to-capacity carloads may no longer represent the typical American family’s landscape...

Which new game system should you buy: Xbox One or Playstation 4?
Thomas McDonald
I’ll keep it short: neither. In a year, maybe, you can consider getting into the new generation of consoles by buying either an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4. From what I’ve seen, I’d lean towards the Xbox One, because I prefer the Microsoft ecosystem, it has better multimedia features...

Vatican releases schedule of Pope's Advent and Christmas liturgies...

Christian pop music: Is this really the best we can do?

Get this entire Catholic website on CD-ROM...
The full contents of the New Advent website are available on CD-ROM. It includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more — and it's only $19.99...