The Catholic Difference is a weekly column syndicated by the Archdiocese of Denver.
Rediscovering the Reality of the Eucharist
Thinking out loud about a return to “Sunday normal,” a veteran pastor recently told me that he thought it would take one year for each month of lockdown/quarantine/shelter-at-home for Mass
AM[D]G
Last November 11, on the centenary of its relocation to a 93-acre campus in suburban Washington, D.C., Georgetown Preparatory School announced a $60 million capital campaign. In his message for
The Next Pope and the Crisis of the West
In February 1968, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła wrote Father Henri de Lubac, S.J., about a project in which the cardinal was engaged: a philosophical explanation of the uniqueness and nobility of
The Next Pope and Vatican Diplomacy
During a short papal flight from Boston to New York on October 2, 1979, Father Jan Schotte (later a cardinal but then a low-ranking curial official) discovered that Cardinal Agostino
The Next Pope and Vatican II
Polemics about the Second Vatican Council continue to bedevil the global Catholic conversation. Some Catholics, often found in the moribund local churches of western Europe, claim that the Council’s “spirit”
The Next Pope and the Great Commission
In The Shoes of the Fisherman, crusty old Cardinal Leone, canvassing votes for a surprise candidate just before the election of a new pope, is deeply moved by a quiet
Books for the Summer of Our Discontent
These past few months, I expect many folks have found themselves resorting to the page and the lamp more often; may that literary trend continue long after our public health
Will Nancy Pelosi Take a Page from Her Father’s Playbook?
In 1918, Mayor James Preston presented a 264-piece silver service to Cardinal James Gibbons on behalf of Baltimore and its citizens—a municipal tribute to the city’s beloved archbishop on the
The Biases of a Royal Commission
Abrief dip into Latin helps us understand how preconceptions can lead to biased judgments that falsify history—as they did when an Australian Royal Commission on sexual abuse recently impugned the
“The Heavens Declare the Glory of God…”
In his Life of St. Augustine, the 5th-century bishop Possidius tells us that the greatest of the Latin Doctors of the Church, knowing that his earthly end was near, had four
The Vatican’s Choice: Jimmy Lai or XI Jinping?
In mid-May, Chinese leader XI Jinping unveiled a plan to bypass Hong Kong’s legislature and impose draconian new “national security” laws on the former British colony. Putatively intended to defend
Extraordinary Evangelization in Extraordinary Times
I’d heard about Father Alexander Sherbrooke long before we met in June 2011; Father Sherbrooke had been a mentor for young friends of mine who had worked at St. Patrick’s
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Contradictions? Or confusions?
A Forty-Something Cardinal?
