Rendering to Caesar

A philosophy teacher of mine once asked me to define a chair. At first, I thought he was joking, but he pressed me for the definition, so I eventually offered that a chair is something you sit on. Simple. "But," he replied, "you could sit on a table, right? And that wouldn't make a table a... Read more

This summer we saw another World Youth Day – this one a double celebration because, in this Jubilee Year of Mercy, it was held in Poland, the home of St. Faustina, to whom the Divine Mercy messages and devotion were entrusted. And, not incidentally, also the home of the initiator of World... Read more

[caption id="attachment_67954" align="aligncenter" width="575"] Pope Francis greets business leaders and Catholic social teaching experts during an audience at the Vatican May 13. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano)[/caption] One of the less-noticed statistics to emerge from one of the most thorough... Read more

[caption id="attachment_63010" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Trinity Marines fire the BGM-71 missile during exercise Lava Viper, one of the staples of their pre-deployment training, at Range 20 aboard Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii, Oct. 24, 2015. Lava Viper provides the Hawaii-based Marines... Read more

In the wake of the Paris attacks, many are trying to connect refugees to terrorism. I’ve noted elsewhere that despite millions of refugees having been admitted since the U.S. refugee resettlement program began in its current form in 1980—including hundreds of thousands from the Middle... Read more

President Obama's executive action preventing the deportation of an estimated 5 million people living in the United States illegally suffered another setback Monday after a federal appeals court upheld a federal judge's injunction blocking the measure. The 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S.... Read more

For months, the news has been flooded with stories about waves of “migrants” descending on Europe from war-ravaged Syria and elsewhere in the Mideast. We also hear about repeated attempts by lesser numbers of people to slip into Europe by sea, usually with the aid of smugglers, from North... Read more

According to China’s official news service run by the Communist government, China is reportedly abolishing the draconian pro-abortion one child policy that only allows families in urban areas to have one child and rural families to have two children. The new policy will reportedly allow two... Read more

Pope Francis in September asked Catholics in Europe to put up immigrant families fleeing the horrors of war in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa. In the village of Lourdes, France, it was already happening. About 15 Iraqi Christian families have arrived in the pilgrimage town... Read more

Egyptian Christian billionaire and philanthropist Naguib Sawiris couldn't take it anymore. During an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, Sawiris said his heart breaks every time he sees migrant families getting turned down by border authorities in Europe and forced to deal with hunger,... Read more