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July 26, 2019

For 3 months, no girls were born in 132 Indian villages

July 26, 2019

A northern Indian district has launched an investigation into a region in which the birth rate of baby girls is in dramatic decline. Government data has revealed that among 216 babies born across 132 villages in the last three months, not even one of them was a girl. The district administration of the Uttarkashi region

Benedict XVI pays a surprise visit to Castel Gandolfo

July 26, 2019

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI left Vatican City on Thursday to make a surprise visit to Castel Gandolfo. The pope emeritus visited the Pontifical Villa July 25 for the first time in four years, and walked the garden paths where he used to pray, according to Italian media. Benedict XVI then went to the 15th century

It is deeply heartening to see a bishop encouraging Mass ad orientem

July 26, 2019

An elderly priest, and retired scholar, wrote me an indignant, thundering letter last year. Though always to the left of me, politically and theologically, I always knew him as a man who respected disagreement — and me. He was one of those old liberal lions who had navigated “dissent” from Church teaching with that lawyerly

Europe’s heatwave could damage Notre-Dame, architect warns

July 26, 2019

Almost four months after a fire destroyed the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris, officials are concerned that the building is still at risk of collapse. Now instead of a fire threatening the 850-year-old building, it is the record summer temperatures that may further erode the stonework. France, and most of Europe, is in the midst

Archdiocese allows ‘mother 1’ and ‘mother 2’ on baptism certificate

July 26, 2019

The recent baptism of a child raised by a same-sex couple has caused a controversy in Colombia, after a parish pastor issued a baptismal certificate indicating that the child has two mothers. Manuela and Luisa Fernanda Gómez, who are civilly married under Colombian law, wanted to have their 17-month-old son Matías baptized in the city

The deep faith of the Von Trapp family

July 26, 2019

Last month we celebrated the Feast of the Sacred Heart, beloved of Catholic devotional iconography (and traditional kitsch holy pictures). If the core of the Christian faith is the love of Christ, this Feast is a visible and liturgical reminder of it. In Around the Year with the Von Trapp Family (Sophia Institute Press), its