If God is all powerful, and truly seeks our good, then why does He allow bad things to happen to people? Why does God allow all the suffering we experience in this life, if He loves us and is all-powerful and all-knowing? What does the Catholic Church say about the meaning of suffering?

When I was a child the gospel seemed to be something that merely floated on top of my human existence. I did not perceive it as going to the very heart of my existence. I knew that I was mortal, and from the Bible I understood that when I died I would go either to […]

What is the difference between a branch and a schism? Many Christians speak of the present plurality of denominations as ‘branches.’ That term makes the present state of disunity among Christians seem quite acceptable.

“Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him.” (St. Luke 24:31) “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (St. John 15:18)

St. Irenaeus and St. Clement of Alexandria, who both lived during the second century, tell us that after the Apostle John returned from exile on Patmos, he remained at Ephesus “till Trajan’s time.” Trajan became emperor in AD 98. According to the tradition, St. John was the last of the twelve Apostles to die. When […]

In May of 2007, Dr. Francis J. Beckwith, at that time the president of the Evangelical Theological Society, announced that he was returning to the Catholic Church in which he had been raised.

Last week Neal, Taylor and I attended the Letter & Spirit Summer Institute in Steubenville, Ohio, hosted by Scott Hahn and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. While we were there, we met John Kincaid.

One of the most fundamental differences between the Protestant and Catholic ecclesial paradigms concerns the nature of the Church that Christ founded. According to the predominant Protestant paradigm, the Church itself is a spiritual, invisible entity, though some of its members, namely, all those believers still living in this present life, are visible, because they […]

This past Sunday we celebrated the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, the day Jesus ascended into heaven from the Mount of Olives. I was sitting in St. Clement of Rome parish church, attending the first mass offered by Fr. Eric Olson, who had been ordained a priest the previous day, listening to the […]

Q. What evidence do we have that the [Ecumenical Councils’] exercise of apostolic authority was legitimate, and has remained infallible? A. In order to answer this question, it is helpful to consider the implications of the visibility of the Church in relation to Christ’s promises. I have addressed that indirectly here (in January of 2008) […]