These heroes will never be memorialized by a John Williams composition. But their courage was nonetheless just as moving – and as indicative of the nobility of which human beings are capable – as that of any Olympic athlete.

Last month’s anniversary Mass was something of a grand recapitulation of the John Paul II years.

Both Stanley Rother and Alexei Navalny exemplified the cardinal virtue of courage, which is also a gift of the Holy Spirit.

U.S. Catholicism’s intellectual life is robust, dynamically orthodox, and culture-enriching — unlike Catholic intellectual life in those large swathes of western Europe where “Follow the Zeitgeist to Mordor” is the order of the day.

What shall we make of the burning Holy Land, during a Christmastide when we celebrate the angelic announcement of a messianic birth that marks the inbreaking of the peaceable kingdom of Isaiah 11:6-9?

Some of those in charge of the “Synod on Synodality” may have regarded the German “Synodal Path” as a useful instrument in clearing the path for a dramatic reconfiguration of Catholic self-understanding and governance, moving the goalposts so far to the left that the old 50-yard line of the Catholic Vital Center would now be the old left end zone.

John Paul, who had more pastoral contact with young adults than any pope in modern history, knew that young people wanted something more than ease: he understood from experience that deep within the young heart is a yearning for meaning, for nobility, for greatness.

Brilliance and humility met in Victor Galeone and were fused by hours of daily prayer that left callouses on his knees.

Major-Archbishop Shevchuk and Archbishop Gudziak have borne a powerful global witness to the truths of Catholic faith amidst a moral monster’s genocidal assault on the people of Ukraine.

I know of few, if any, public figures who have displayed the moral courage George Pell displayed for decades as he defended and promoted the truth of Catholic faith in the face of a relentless, vicious Australian media campaign to destroy him.