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.

Participation in the “communion of saints” is one of the great gifts conferred in baptism. As I give thanks for the gift of my baptism seventy-five years ago, it is incorporation into this “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12:1) for which I am particularly grateful.

Back in the fall, my sister Maureen reached out to tell us that her son, a junior in high school, had landed an actual role in his school musical.

What goodness of God, to give the gifts we need: extra time, real companions, rich stories and relentless grace. In the family of faith, even in our hardest days, we are never alone on the road.

Now it occurs to me that since I didn’t say my penance right away, my confession was invalid and I shouldn’t have received Communion at Mass. Is this a new sin I need to confess?

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.

On a recent vacation, I read Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables.”

Hugo was truly a poet and philosopher. “Les Misérables” became one of his most popular works through its musical presentation on Broadway and later as a film. It tells various stories about life with distinct and complicated moral issues that need resolution.

I have a question about appeals to Rome of the declaration of nullity process. The metropolitan tribunal of my local archdiocese has completed their review of the case and stated that it has been proved that there is sufficient ground to find the marriage invalid (“decision in the affirmative”).

The last thing a Jewish academic like myself with no grounding in Christian theology should want to do at this particular time is to weigh in on the attacks against Pope Leo XIV by President Trump, Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson and others.

When President Donald Trump criticized Pope Leo XIV on Truth Social on April 12, he sidestepped the substance of the pope’s message.