Christian News

Family estrangement has moved from the margins to the mainstream and this shift is now visible across popular culture and media alike. Oprah recently gave airtime to the “rising trend” of adult children who have severed ties with their parents. The New York Times offered suggestions for how to cope with family estrangement, especially around the holidays...

Say goodbye to abrupt departures, that awkward am-I-staying-or-going dance, and hovering anxiously (and conspicuously) near the door.There’s an art to bidding your host adieu, even if you’re slipping out earlier than expected—and experts say it’s a skill that can serve you well at any gathering, any time of year.Here’s exactly what to say to deliver a great goodbye.

Elites in Ancient Rome went to great lengths to advertise their status and wealth. Based on recent archaeological excavations in Egypt, at least some high-ranking military officials even showed off with their choice of pets. In the Journal of Roman Archaeology, researchers at Poland’s University of Warsaw described...

During a decade of service at the Vatican Secretariat of State, I was constantly perplexed by the Holy See’s unwillingness or inability to utilize already existing ecclesial structures for effective governance. As the Cardinals meet in Rome over the next few days, it’s worth taking a hard look at some recent ways in which the Church has been operating...

For as long as human beings have looked up at the night sky, we have tried to make sense of ourselves by reading what we see there. Long before telescopes or algorithms, people named the stars, traced patterns between them, and searched the heavens for meaning that seemed elusive closer to home...

A good definition of frustration: The difference between the way we want things to be and the way they are. It is the gap between expectations and reality. Expecting others to act well is understandable. Treat me well, as I treat you. You would agree that I treat you well, wouldn’t you? A plea I hear repeatedly as a psychologist...

At the beginning of creation, all of the angels were united in serving God. But a time came when Lucifer, the most senior of all the angels, grew resentful towards God. Catholic tradition holds that this resentment arose when Lucifer realized God’s plan for humanity and the role which human beings, and in particular Our Lady, were destined to play as the crowning glory of all creation.

Pope Leo XIV will hold the first consistory of his pontificate on Jan. 7-8, in what is expected to be the first major programmatic event of his pontificate. The extraordinary consistory follows a papacy in which Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, mostly refrained from holding large meetings with cardinals, something that many reportedly complained about during the pre-conclave meetings last year...

The idea that marriage is simply a kind of equal partnership between a man and woman is a model that Western culture purchased a long time ago and at a high price. Such a pattern isn’t a model for integrating a family together into an organic unit but is a road map for divorce with divisions from the start. Separate responsibilities, career goals, and bank accounts make it a challenge to truly weave a couple together...

Yesterday I experienced once again the astounding Byzantine liturgy of Epiphany. Among other things, there was the special blessing of water, wherein the entire natural world is invoked as a chorus of witnesses to its Creator. This gives occasion to ask whether we really see the natural world for what it is, or has our perception been dulled by a pervasive bad science, or our lack of attention, or some other cause.

You might have read in recent days that the flu is surging across the U.S., thanks to a new flu strain that’s causing a lot of problems. Well, our family loves jumping into a good trend, so we spent most of the Christmas octave down with that very flu ourselves, including spending most of Christmas day in the ER with an acutely sick kid.

“Christmas is o-vah!” he shouted, in his thick New England accent, two days after Christmas. Of course, Christmas was very much not over. In the Catholic Church, the Christmas season lasts until the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord — and that was weeks away. Those words, in that accent, and the whole story that followed, have become a yearly Christmas tale in my house...