Jeanie Hannaman

By John Mac Ghlionn, Crisis Magazine - Moral relativism, put simply, is the belief that right and wrong depend on personal opinion or cultural perspective. It sounds tolerant. It flatters our desire for autonomy. But it crumbles under the force of its own contradictions. If all morality is relative, then there can be no condemnation of anything, anywhere—not genocide, not slavery, not rape. If morality is just a cultural costume, then the Nazi uniform is no worse than a business suit, and the gulag is no worse than a schoolhouse. Relativism, when stripped of its disguises, defends nothing and permits everything.

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture - Many faithful Catholics were surprised and dismayed to learn that Pope Leo had met with Father James Martin, SJ, in a private audience last week. I share their dismay. But not their surprise... We all knew, from the moment he was elected, that Pope Leo XIV would not repudiate the policies of his predecessor. He had worked closely with Pope Francis, who appointed him as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. By all accounts their relationship was friendly, with not a hint of conflict. While some of us might have wished for a new Pontiff who would immediately announce a series of policy changes, that was never in the cards.

By Stephen P. White, The Catholic Thing - Fifteen years ago this month, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to make a state visit to Britain. (John Paul II made a pastoral visit in 1982.) It was an historic event, both for the Catholic Church in the UK and for the United Kingdom. Nearly five centuries after Henry VIII broke with the Church, here was the Bishop of Rome being received by the Queen at Holyroodhouse, welcomed by the Archbishop of Canterbury in Lambeth, and invited to address British leaders and dignitaries in Westminster Hall – the very place where St. Thomas More had been tried and condemned 475 years before.