Father McGivney: Founder’s desire for charity built Knights of Columbus’ success May 30, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary, Knights of Columbus In many ways, Father Michael J. McGivney was just one more of that band of hardworking Irish-American priests who spent themselves building up the church in America in the latter years of the 19th century. But in one truly extraordinary respect, he was unique: Before he was 30, Father McGivney had founded what was to become the largest Catholic men’s organization in the world: the Knights of Columbus.
Get ready for the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage’s stops in the Archdiocese of Baltimore May 27, 2026By Catholic Review Staff Catholic Review Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Eucharist, Feature, Local News, News Catholics from across Maryland will have an opportunity this June to take part in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage as it passes through the Archdiocese of Baltimore on its way from Florida, up the East Coast to Maine and then to Philadelphia as part of celebrations surrounding America’s 250th anniversary.
Radio Interview: From Russian prince to American frontier priest May 26, 2026By Catholic Review Staff Catholic Review Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, CR Radio, Feature, Local News, News, Radio Interview In the early years of the Catholic Church in the United States, few figures were as unlikely – or as fascinating – as Prince Demetrius Augustin Gallitzin. Born into Russian nobility with Catherine the Great as his godmother, Gallitzin became a Catholic priest on the American frontier, earning the title “Apostle of the Alleghenies.”
Flannery O’Connor: Southern writer made Catholic vision ‘apparent by shock’ May 23, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary Flannery O’Connor was not an evangelist. She was an artist, one of the most gifted American fiction writers of the 20th century. But a profoundly Catholic theological vision informs her art, giving her stories resonance and depth that sound deep — and sometimes deeply disturbing — spiritual chords.
America 250 occasion to reflect on equality as a God-given right, Bishop Barron says May 18, 2026By Kate Scanlon OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Feature, News, World News As the nation prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, it should reflect on how the American understanding of equality is grounded in the belief that all people are equally children of God, Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, said May 17 at a prayer rally on the National Mall.
Cardinal Gibbons: Baltimore’s effective advocate for American Catholicism’s Americanization May 16, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary In a long, fruitful career as leader of the American hierarchy, Cardinal Gibbons combined diplomacy, patriotism and a canny understanding of human nature in a manner that made him the most effective advocate before or since of the Americanization of American Catholicism. To him more than anyone, the Catholic Church owes both the advantages and the unintended consequences of assimilation into American secular culture.
Dorothy Day: Catholic Worker founder pioneered a faith-based alternative to secularist progressivism May 9, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary Dorothy Day was co-founder of the Catholic Worker movement and longtime editor of the penny-a-copy newspaper of the same name. From the mid-1930s to the early 1980s, she preached radical Christianity and no less radical social activism to a sometimes appreciative, sometimes puzzled, sometimes angry audience of American Catholics.
Father John Courtney Murray: Advocate for cooperation between church, state May 2, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary By all odds, the distinguished intellectual landmark in the project of integrating Catholicism and Americanism is “We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition,” a collection of essays published in 1960 by the theologian Jesuit Father John Courtney Murray.
Cardinal Francis Spellman: A dramatic, hard-fought rise to the top April 25, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary Many cardinals have had books written about them, but few have become the fictionalized heroes of best-selling novels. Cardinal Francis J. Spellman, archbishop of New York from 1939 to 1967, was one — possibly the only one.
New York Gov. Al Smith: Perseverance in both political endeavors, faith April 18, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary To President Franklin Roosevelt, he was the “Happy Warrior.” To suspicious Protestants, he was a pawn of the pope. Amid such conflicting views as these, the remarkable political career of Al Smith was forged.
Orestes Brownson: A spiritual seeker turned prominent Catholic intellectual ‘bomb-thrower’ April 11, 2026By Russell Shaw OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Commentary By the end of his life, Orestes Brownson, who was the most distinguished American Catholic public intellectual of the 19th century, had become a ferocious critic of the Americanist path that most of his fellow Catholics had chosen.
‘We need more saints’: Center helps to advance canonization causes April 11, 2026By Gina Christian OSV News Filed Under: America's 250th anniversary, Feature, News, Saints, World News As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, a California-based initiative is working to help speed along sainthood causes among Americans, and to make the canonization process more accessible overall.
