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Catholic Teaching

Exorcism in the Catholic Church: The Rite, the Canon Law, and the Discernment Behind the Ministry
Catholic Teaching

What Does the Catholic Church Actually Teach About Exorcism? Exorcism occupies an unusual place in the modern Catholic imagination — simultaneously a subject of horror films and genuine, carefully regulated pastoral ministry. Contrary to sensationalized portrayals, the Church approaches exorcism with considerable caution, extensive procedural safeguards, and a strong presumption toward natural and medical explanations…

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Topical Issues

St. Joseph: The Silent Saint the Church Made Patron of All
Topical Issues

Who Was St. Joseph? Of all the major figures of the New Testament, none is more silent than Joseph of Nazareth — and none has been more richly meditated upon by the Church precisely because of that silence. Scripture records not a single word spoken by him, yet the tradition has drawn from his few…

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History of the Catholic Church

The Council of Trent: How the Church Answered the Reformation, 1545–1563
History of the Catholic Church

What Was the Council of Trent? The Council of Trent stands as one of the most consequential councils in the history of the Church — the nineteenth ecumenical council, convened as the Catholic Church’s definitive theological and disciplinary response to the Protestant Reformation. Meeting intermittently across eighteen years, Trent did not merely react defensively to…

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History of the Catholic Church

The History of the Inquisition: Separating Documented Fact from Popular Myth
History of the Catholic Church

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…

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Topical Issues

The Index of Forbidden Books: What the Church Actually Banned, and Why
Topical Issues

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…

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Prayer and Devotion

The Holy Souls in Purgatory: Understanding November’s Extraordinary Graces for the Church Suffering
Prayer and Devotion

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.

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Approved Apparitions

Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 6: The Poor, the Sorrowful, and a Warning of Genocide
Approved Apparitions

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…

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Approved Apparitions

Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 5: Hope in Wartime and Silence in the Rain
Approved Apparitions

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…

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Approved Apparitions

Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 4: Weeping and Wonders
Approved Apparitions

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…

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Approved Apparitions

Chronicle of Marian Apparitions, Part 3: Shepherdesses and Sinners
Approved Apparitions

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…

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