John Gehring

Speaking at the Napa Institute summer conference, former Vice President Mike Pence urged those attending the conference to help build a movement to reclaim faith and traditional values.

Analysis: Leonard Leo, the chief adviser to Donald Trump on Supreme Court nominations, has emerged in recent years as a major player at the Catholic University of America, the nation's only Vatican-chartered university.

Timothy Busch has announced that the Napa Institute — known for its high-priced conferences and networking events with bishops, Republican politicians and business leaders — will open an office in D.C.

Catholics are the inheritors of a tradition that long perpetuated white supremacy as religiously sanctioned. Too many white Catholics with money and power mock "wokeism" on the left rather than fight systemic racism.

Analysis: How do Catholic moral theologians, Catholic health care ethicists and Catholic women who view themselves as pro-life think about the more extreme anti-abortion restrictions now making headlines?

Timothy Busch and the Napa Institute's latest foray into Catholic higher education — funding a new lecture series at Notre Dame — is sparking a backlash from professors at the university, according to interviews with faculty over the past two months.

In the Yakima Diocese, men studying to be priests are not only expected to study theology, philosophy and biblical exegesis, but also spend part of their summer learning from and ministering to migrants in the fields.

The Napa Institute announced plans to expand its work to include programs on priestly formation and a lecture series at the University of Notre Dame, during its summer conference July 22-24 at a spa resort in California.

Commentary: I buck myself up with a reminder that Catholicism is much bigger than the latest scandal or headline. The church is an ancient, beautiful and flawed vessel that has carried the best and worst of humanity over the centuries. 

Bishops have every right to challenge Catholic politicians on abortion. Deploying Communion as a bludgeon to selectively sanction elected officials on a single issue is not the answer. 

LGBTQ Catholics are still processing the recent denial of church blessings to people in same-sex unions. Many are also watching a Supreme Court case that continues a national debate over LGBTQ rights versus claims of religious liberty.

Even as the Republican Party and a beleaguered Christian right struggle to find a path forward after Donald Trump's defeat, religious progressives are already redefining the narrative around faith and politics in Washington.

Commentary: White Christians stuck with Donald Trump in large numbers; Catholic institutions must do some soul-searching about the persistence of racism in our church, political formation and cultural assumptions.

While media focus on white Catholics in swing states, Black and Latinx Catholics are asserting their own political voice amid protests for racial justice and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The attorney general's admirers cheer his commitment to religious freedom, but critics say that commitment is selective and ideologically driven. The pro-life movement embraces him — yet he reinstated federal executions.

Commentary: As millions of Americans adjust to social isolation brought on by the coronavirus, two women, undocumented immigrants in Columbus, Ohio, have spent more than two years living in seclusion.

Commentary: Our culture's extreme individualism, materialism and libertarian contempt for the common good have come with a cost, and the current crisis should renew commitment to a different political and civic vision.

Commentary: Catholics could be leaders in reclaiming a more authentic commitment to religious freedom that doesn't pit religion against LGBTQ dignity, or view rights and responsibilities as opposing forces.

Perspective: Most of us want to stand out, speak up, find our voice. What happens when we perform the radical act of withdrawing and being quiet?

Mary Gautier, senior researcher at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), has spent two decades explaining the Catholic Church to itself, using social science. Among church officials, academics and religion journalists, she has a national reputation for politely puncturing conventional wisdom.