Why Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ is a Catholic journey May 28, 2026By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Books, Feature, News, World News Because J.R.R. Tolkien was a serious Catholic, one might assume that religion would be evident in his literary masterpiece. Yet, there is no religion in “The Lord of the Rings.” There is magic and even glimpses of the demonic, but the world Tolkien creates is a world wholly contained within itself. It is a large world, an old world, even a mythological world in its own way, but everything is within that world.
Mary, icon of the Church April 9, 2026By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Feature On a snow-covered winter day in 1842, Father Edward Sorin stood before a frozen lake in northern Indiana and did something audacious. He consecrated the land, the institution he was about to found and every soul who would ever study or work there to the Blessed Virgin Mary — and he did this not as an afterthought or pious decoration, but as the founding act itself.
What we’re becoming: AI and future of human dignity March 4, 2026By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Commentary If we approach “the AI Revolution” with only an eye to potential benefits, we’ll blindly accept the deleterious consequences to human life and society. We’ll automate ourselves into irrelevance without meaning to. We’ll outsource our humanity one convenience at a time.
Silence in place of homily at daily Mass February 5, 2026By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Commentary, Worship & Sacraments Even our churches have embraced verbosity, as if more explanation equals more faith. But the Church’s own law recognizes what we’ve forgotten: The homily at daily Mass is recommended, not required.
Kneeling in the pigpen: Human connection in the age of efficiency January 7, 2026By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Commentary It’s easier than ever to pull away from people with minimal consequence: ghost someone, block, unfollow. We’ve built technologies that make disconnection frictionless.
Corridors of gratitude December 7, 2025By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Commentary God doesn’t wait for us to get our spiritual act together before he moves on our behalf. He just asks us to turn toward him with whatever we’ve got, however inadequate it feels.
Beauty as truth? October 3, 2025By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Books, Commentary Sarah Clarkson’s book, “This Beautiful Truth: How God’s Goodness Breaks into Our Darkness,” is a remarkable corrective to our persistent urge to “make sense” of evil and suffering.
All creation gives praise: Seeking God — and wonder — in cosmos August 31, 2025By Leonard J. DeLorenzo OSV News Filed Under: Commentary Wonder takes time; it is more than surprise and interruption. Wonder is a relationship of intimacy, where you find yourself in awe at something that is beyond you, which becomes more fascinating the longer you dwell with it.
