Russell Shaw
The Common Core controversy
Longer ago than I care to remember, I spent three years working for a Washington-based national education organization. I liked... Read more
Was Vatican II needed?
Why did we need the Second Vatican Council? Did we need it at all? Hearing those questions, most Catholics who’ve... Read more
Secularist reactions to Hobby Lobby
Considered either as an ideology or as a program of action, secularism is deeply coercive. Reactions to the Supreme Court’s... Read more
Iraq: Where to go from here
Starting in 2003, the United States has made two fundamental mistakes in Iraq, both with strong moral implications. At the... Read more
The church attendence decline and what to do about it
Forty years ago, as the falloff in Sunday Mass attendance by American Catholics was becoming too obvious to ignore, Catholic... Read more
Crisis in the news business
It was a week that began with the management of The New York Times forcing out the paper’s executive editor... Read more
Our spontaneous Pope
Spontaneity that reflects good-heartedness is a highly attractive trait, but the spontaneity of self-indulgence is reckless and often cruel. Spontaneity... Read more
Factions in the Church
Those first century Christians of Corinth must certainly have been a boisterous, troublesome lot. But maybe we should be glad... Read more
Lent and the Purple Monster
I was a little shy of ten years old when I had what may have been my most spiritually profitable... Read more
Gay Marriage: Back to the Court
When the Supreme Court last June overturned a section of the Defense of Marriage Act saying that in the eyes... Read more
Marriage surprise
Surprise! Approval of same-sex marriage has risen sharply among Americans in just a few years – according to one poll,... Read more
Pope Francis
The surprising election of Pope Francis plainly was nosurprise to the people who really counted: the cardinals, that is, who... Read more
The Pope we need now
“I hope we get a nice pope,” a good Catholic woman told me soon after Benedict XVI announced his resignation.“I... Read more
The personal vocation of Pope Benedict
For the last several weeks I've been teaching an online course about the role of the Catholic laity. We'd just... Read more
Authentic Lent, Cardinal Newman style
Why is it that Ash Wednesday and Lent remain relatively popular even in highly secularized times like these? It's a... Read more
Demography
The disruptive results for individuals and society spawned by the revolution in attitudes and behavior regarding sex, marriage, family, and... Read more
Tough religion and evangelization
Much has been said lately about how to do evangelization. I've contributed a bit to that myself. Now I begin... Read more
