What Was “The Inquisition,” Actually? Few subjects in Church history are more distorted by popular imagination than the Inquisition. The word conjures a single, centuries-long campaign of torture and mass execution — an image built more from anti-Catholic propaganda and Hollywood than from archival evidence. In reality, “the Inquisition” was never one institution. It was…
What Was the Index of Forbidden Books? For over four hundred years, the Index Librorum Prohibitorum — the Index of Forbidden Books — stood as the Catholic Church’s official list of publications Catholics were forbidden to read without special permission. Often caricatured today as pure censorship or intellectual repression, the Index in fact reflected a…
Every November, the Catholic Church turns her gaze toward the faithful departed. This article explores what purgatory is, why the Church teaches it, and how the faithful can put its extraordinary graces into practice.
Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 6 The Poor, the Sorrowful, and a Warning of Genocide: Our Lady of Beauraing to Our Lady of the Rosary of San Nicolas (1932–1983) This sixth and final installment closes the chronicle with four of the more recent Church-approved Marian apparitions, spanning barely fifty years yet crossing three continents. Two…
Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 5 Hope in Wartime and Silence in the Rain: Our Lady of Pontmain to Our Lady of Fatima (1871–1917) War, national suffering, and the eve of a global catastrophe form the backdrop to the four apparitions examined in this fifth installment. From a French village threatened by Prussian invasion, to…
Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 4 Weeping and Wonders: Our Lady of La Salette to Our Lady of Good Help (1846–1859) The mid-nineteenth century produced some of the best-documented and most consequential Marian apparitions in the history of the Church, culminating in the world-famous events at Lourdes. This fourth installment follows Our Lady from a…
Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 3 Shepherdesses and Sinners: Our Lady of Querrien to Our Lady of Zion (1652–1842) The apparitions gathered in this third installment span nearly two centuries and move from the pastures of rural France to the streets of Paris and a quiet church in Rome. Three of the four center on…
Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 2 The Age of Evangelization: Our Lady of Guadalupe to Our Lady of Coromoto (1531–1652) As the Catholic faith spread from Europe into the Americas and reawakened in lands touched by the Protestant Reformation, the Virgin Mary appeared repeatedly at the frontiers of the faith. This second installment traces five…
Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 1 From the Apostolic Age to the Renaissance: Our Lady of the Pillar to Our Lady of the Guard (40 AD–1490) Long before Lourdes or Fatima entered the popular imagination, the Blessed Virgin Mary was already making herself known to the faithful across the Christian world. This first installment in…
Long before catechisms were printed or cathedrals raised their spires, the faith of the Church was carried in symbols. Four of these sacred ciphers have endured with particular power: IHS, INRI, the Chi-Rho, and the Ichthys. To understand them is to enter the imagination of the early Church and to recover devotions that have nourished saints for two thousand years.
