A World in Pain

This past Saturday morning, many awoke to images of another French cathedral on fire—this time in the heart of Nantes. In the early morning hours of July 18, a fire began in the Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul cathedral. Passers-by saw flames through a window of the cathedral and alerted emergency... Read more

A Catholic bishop has deplored the world’s indifference to escalating extremist violence in northern Mozambique, where multiple churches have been burnt, people beheaded, young girls kidnapped, and hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the violence. Bishop Luiz Fernando Lisboa of... Read more

Progressives eagerly remind America of its past of slavery and racism. So much so that The New York Times’ 1619 Project literally dates America that way, defining the country’s start by the year 1619 (rather than 1620 or 1776), with the arrival of the first Africans to Virginia that... Read more

I try to reply cordially to every letter WORLD members send me. During June I briefly apologized 20 times to reprimands for a mistake I made, but with letter 21 something broke, and I responded at greater length. Thanks for your note. I was inaccurate to say George Floyd “by all accounts... Read more

Schools and a Catholic parish in New Jersey expressed pain but also offered prayers following the killing of 20-year-old Daniel Anderl, son of a federal judge, who was a student at The Catholic University of America in Washington. He was fatally shot in the heart when a gunman entered the... Read more

Around midnight on Monday, a North Macedonian border patrol officer stopped a truck on a regional road near the town of Gevgelija. He found 211 migrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan packed inside, including 63 minors. Gevgelija is close to the country’s border with Greece, which government... Read more

During this time of quarantine, one of the biggest examples of how much things have changed has been the disappearance of professional sports. However, ESPN has been broadcasting a series of spectacular documentaries on Sunday evenings. I’m not an absolute sports nut, but something about... Read more

“Sooner or later, all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood.”  The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke these eloquent words almost... Read more

On June 4, I was returning from early morning Mass for religious sisters across Midtown Manhattan when, on 48th Street, I entered the pedestrian protective tunnel of a construction site. There was an African American construction worker on the other side of the tunnel who, as I approached,... Read more

Two black Catholic priests— one ordained six years, the other 42— shared their thoughts with CNA this week on the sin of racism, and the importance of praying, fasting, and advocating for healing. Father Josh Johnson, pastor of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in the... Read more