Welcome to the Renewal: Seeing Catholics Today

March 10, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

Recently, I hosted an event at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., with Anne Hendershott and Christopher White (@cwwhite212 on Twitter), co-authors of the new book Renewal: How a New Generation of Faithful Priests and Bishops Is Revitalizing the Catholic Church. There was a love and enthusiasm for the Church and evangelizing present. Love and mercy and truth were on the table, with White bringing a convert’s zeal to the book, with love for Pope Francis rooted in the... Read more

Break Depression’s Grip

February 27, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

On National Review Online today, I interview Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, who is author, along with my friend Msgr. John Cihak, STD, in The Catholic Guide to Depression: How the Saints, the Sacraments, and Psychiatry Can Help You Break Its Grip and Find Happiness Again. It’s a practical, heartbreaking, liberating book, one that will both wretch and soothe the soul. If you’re depressed, if you know someone who is depressed, get help. It’s not a sin, it’s an illness. If you’re... Read more

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

February 22, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

One other thing the pope said at Mass for new cardinals Saturday was: The Church needs us also to be peacemakers, building peace by our words, our hopes and our prayers. Building peace! Being peacemakers! Let us therefore invoke peace and reconciliation for those peoples presently experiencing violence, exclusion and war. As we follow Jesus, as Pope Francis implored, we must remember this, from his visit to Lampedusa: “Adam, where are you?” “Where is your brother?” These are the two... Read more

Living The Way, Come What May

February 22, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

A friend this month, who might have been the freest man I ever met, died. You love, you serve, you know you are a sinner and accept justice and aren’t destroyed by sin and injustice because you know you’re a sinner and you know your Father knows this, and sent His Son to win the victory over sin and death for anyone who will say yes and follow. As Pope Francis put it this morning at the Mass for new... Read more

Men Who Love Mary

February 22, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

One of the 19 men who became a cardinal today, the one from North America, is Gérald Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec. I stood in a very long line with him a one late November night in Mexico city last year, and have run into him more than a few times in the past year at different events in different countries. He’s got that contagious joy and warmth that opens doors and invites people to consider what it is the Church... Read more

The Sweet Life

February 17, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

From St Francis de Sales, in his treatise on the Love of God: Oh, how sweet and desirable is the yoke of the law you impose on us, O Lord, who love us so much and are worthy of our love! … Oh Lord, who love us so much and are worthy of our love! The heart that loves you loves your commandments, and the more difficult they are, the most sweetness and delight it finds in them, as an... Read more

Are We Salt and Light?

February 17, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

Randy Hain at The Integrated Catholic Life asks the question of Christian communications (and our lives): “Do we make Christ and His Church attractive and inviting to others through our words, actions and the way we carry ourselves?” He writes: We may be eloquent speakers, gifted writers or effective debaters. But, when it comes to sharing our Catholic faith none of those gifts matter if they don’t emanate from the true joy of having Christ in our hearts and of... Read more

You’re Not Alone

February 14, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

Overnight, I was trying to figure out what I’d write my syndicated column on — endless possibilities — and wound up with this suggestion from someone over social media: How about the never ending supply of love in the world? I tell me kids to send love in their prayers to someone who is alone and thinks no one loves them or is thinking of them or praying for them. At that moment someone is loving them because we always... Read more

Edith Stein and the Countercultural Single Ladies

February 14, 2014 By Kathryn Jean Lopez

Politicians are forever talking about women’s freedom but real freedom is more radical than our culture is comfortable with. Based on remarks she delivered at Notre Dame last weekend, Elise Italiano helps unpack just what it is that the Gospel means in the lives of women, writing about what Edith Stein might advise her single sisters, in particular. In a piece for the Catholic News Agency, she writes, in part: The Catholic woman is first and foremost called to model... Read more