It happens all year — the requests for donations for all manner of charitable causes.

By Lucia A. Silecchia Every year, as Advent and Christmas approach, I seem to have the same conversation with one of my students. When I ask how the semester is wrapping up, invariably one of my students will tell me how busy they are preparing for final exams, writing course papers, and putting the finishing […]

By IHE Graduate Scholar Jeanne Michelle Datiles All Saints and All Souls: twin feasts that mark the start of November. Perhaps the familiar roll call of ‘apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins’ from the Litany of Loreto pulses in our mind when we think of All Saints. While those ancient categories still stand, they’re given depth, fleshed […]

My team did not make it to the World Series.   They got close — very close.  Alas, the playoffs did not end well for them. I am not the most devoted fan since I usually do not follow the team’s progress until the excitement of the later part of the season when the stakes are […]

By IHE Graduate Scholar Matthew Advent As debates about Church teaching on the modern economy have become more pronounced on social media, usury has received particular attention. Usury is a serious and complex topic with a rich intellectual history.1 When we examine usury through the lens of later developments within the Thomistic tradition, we can […]

By Lucia A. Silecchia “Raising children is sacred work.” We may expect to hear this in a homily, read it in an encyclical, or learn it from our own parents. Instead, this declaration can be found in the opening pages of a frightening, newly-released U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Mental Health and Well-Being of […]

In recent days, the eyes of sports lovers have been turned toward Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games. I have to admit that the Olympics excited me much more when I was younger. When they used to be scheduled every four years, the games seemed rare and special. But, once the summer and winter […]

By IHE Scholar Marcela Duque In one of his audiences on discernment, Pope Francis delivered a series of remarks on the nature of desire, many of which are similar to those in Plato’s Symposium. The Pope describes desire as “a nostalgia for fullness that never finds complete fulfillment” and “the sign of God’s presence in us.” In […]

By IHE Graduate Scholar Dominic Cassella  The word “heresy” is used frequently these days. Because of its widespread use, examining the origins and history of the word can illuminate what it really means and why it matters.  The word originates from the Greek hairein, which means “to choose.” The noun form, hairesis, appears several times […]