On Sept. 14, Bishop Barry Knestout of Richmond, Va., celebrated a Mass of atonement in reparation for the sexual abuse and its cover-up by Catholic priests and prelates. In his homily, the bishop ...

(The Conversation) — Churches’ struggles to respond to the plague and constant warfare in the 14th and 15th centuries helped shape the kinds of Christianity in the world today. As a medieval historian ...

In today’s society, we are constantly regaled with a chorus of My Way — of acceptance of who we are, amid all our faults and eccentricities, and in whatever state. But Jesus cites a different way in ...

While rereading Edmund Morgan’s magisterial American Slavery, American Freedom, I was struck by his discussion of public penance performed by early Virginian fornicators and adulterers: The courts, ...

Before some podcasts made them newly popular, I spent a year reading through the Bible and the Catechism of the Catholic Church. One of the most interesting things that jumped out at me was the ...

The 1953 Alfred Hitchcock film "I Confess," based on an earlier play, features a priest suspected of murder. He's innocent, and has even heard the murderer's confession—but cannot clear his own name.

Good news: If your Lent needs some improvement, there’s no law that you can’t adjust your personal penance mid-stream. Here are a few things I’ve found helpful for ordinary Catholics to consider when ...

On Ash Wednesday my youngest son asked if the next two days were Holy Thursday and Good Friday. His question reflects my initial feelings of Lent: “We have to do this for 40 days?” I start looking for ...

We are fractured sinners in need of a Savior. Prone to wander and slack in virtue, we may feel like the frailty of our flesh fails to match the zeal in our hearts. We are constantly invited to be made ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. As a medieval historian, I study ways that community leaders used Catholic practices and institutions to respond to war and plague ...