Pew’s finding “certainly shows a failure in catechetics, but I think the Church faces a greater problem,” Jesuit Father Thomas Reese wrote in a column for Religion News Service. “Catholics have an impoverished idea of what the Eucharist is really about.”

How can those in authority encourage women to commit to ministry or careers in the Church? Three critical steps come to mind.

“If you want to send a message,” Hollywood stalwart Sam Goldwyn is said to have remarked — with regard to someone’s yen to make a “meaningful” movie — “use Western Union.”

The Thomistic Institute in Washington has launched “Aquinas 101,” a free online video course that instructs interested viewers in the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.

The chairmen of three U.S. bishops’ committees Aug. 21 welcomed a proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor aimed at clarifying religious protections that may be invoked by federal contractors, including faith-based organizations.

Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican secretary for relations with states, said Aug. 22 that a patriotic love for one’s country and culture does not mean closing off oneself to others, particularly those in need.

Author, Stephen Asma, a philosophy professor at Columbia College in downtown Chicago, offers this new volume, “Why We Need Religion,” as an “appreciation.”

Brazil’s space research institute, which is responsible for satellite monitoring of the Amazon, had reported that the number of wildfires, common in July and August, had reached a record number already in 2019, with 72,843 fires spotted.