In the middle of the night, a mother caring for her child is not alone. A convent of nuns wakes up during the night just to pray for new mothers.

A change is coming in 2026 for the pope’s top man in America. Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, turns 80 Jan. 30, and he is widely expected to have his retirement accepted by Pope Leo XIV in the coming weeks.

Ordinary Time means a return to ordinary life: the sleeker, uncomplicated and functional way we most often pass through time. But while the house looks more spacious and less cluttered again, there’s always something sad about packing pretty things into attic-bound boxes to be stored away.

Each of the objects, the surroundings in our Catholic churches, has a purpose and a history. Here is an overview of some of those sacred areas, objects and surroundings.

Insofar as some Anglicans might indeed see themselves as “ministers” rather than sacramental “priests,” in a certain sense we might even “agree” with them about a female archbishop of Canterbury, since the Catholic Church has always acknowledged that women are capable of non-sacramental teaching and leadership.

In the face of these unmistakable signs of cultural, even civilizational, decay, the Church has its work cut out for it.

As the United States and, indeed, the world are being shaken by seismic shifts in American domestic politics and U.S. foreign policy, we find ourselves asking how to bring our faith to bear in a public square increasingly hostile to its teachings.

Promoting a uniquely Catholic culture in our schools is both a necessary task and a challenging one. In rising to this challenge, it is helpful to examine what variables make cultural identity survive and thrive.

I’ve been thinking about gifts, and the meaning of them, with the upcoming March for Life and its 2026 theme: “Life is a gift.”

John Allen never believed journalism was about winning arguments or pleasing audiences. He believed it was about fidelity — to facts, to sources, to context and ultimately to readers.