Pope Leo grew up with remarkably the same kind of life I did. Who would ever have thought such a thing would be possible? Certainly not me. 

Here are five simple things you can do to prepare for Mass. They aren’t difficult or time-consuming. But they are guaranteed to help you enter more deeply into the celebration of the Mass and achieve a more intimate union with Christ and the other members of the worshiping community.

The same racism, which is not as overt as it was in the past, seems to be guiding our current immigration policy.

Get to know Pope Leo through this list of 10 things he’s actually said in the first days of his pontificate.

It’s May, which means every now and then we have a night without baseball or a concert or some other commitment. Mostly, though, it’s a mad dash to the finish. Not to wish time away, but summer can start anytime. It’s my absolute favorite time of year.

The modern tradition of Catholic social teaching — the toolbox of principles the church calls us to draw upon to build the just social order — was instigated by Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903).

Back in early April, Abigail Benjamin submitted a request for tickets to attend a papal audience in May. Not many people were requesting tickets at the time, as a cardinal handled the papal audiences for an ailing Pope Francis. But Abigail felt she and her husband, Jon, should go. They could never have known that […]

Mothering is a presence that pulses in flesh and blood. A love that can never go absent, even when it looks like it has left.

It seems unlikely that these men would have been willing to suffer so intensely and give up so much if they themselves did not sincerely believe in the truth of what they were professing. Reasoning it out, what would have been the Apostles’ motivation for making up a new religion if it meant that they had everything to lose but nothing in this world to gain?

He commands no armies, but we pray desperately that Pope Leo’s moral weight, and ours as he guides us, can make the world and our country a more peaceful place, a community of love and welcome, a place where all are respected and the common good is the common standard.