Catholic News & Perspectives

A reader is wondering: “The Easter Gospel mentions the burial cloths that John and Peter found in the empty tomb. The passage makes a point that the cloth around Jesus’ head was separate from the rest. The Shroud of Turin seems to be one continuous cloth that covers his whole body, including the head. Please reconcile this apparent contradiction.” In his latest column, Monsignor Charles Pope quickly explains this contradiction as well as expounds on the reasons to believe in the Shroud of Turin. This post Does the Shroud of Turin contradict Scripture? appeared on Our Sunday Visitor.

Over the last several weeks, various courts in the U.S. judicial system — including the Supreme Court — have issued rulings on the legality of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone. Even for legal scholars, the decisions have been hard to follow. In a new essay for Our Sunday Visitor, Elizabeth Kirk, director of the Center for Law and the Human Person at The Catholic University of America, clears up the confusion, writing that the plaintiffs in the case are claiming that the safety regulations used in the trial of the drug are not being put in place in real-world applications. Kirk writes: “If the plaintiffs are correct, and the FDA abused its legitimate authority and ignored science in such a way that endangers women, all of us — whatever our views on abortion — should be gravely concerned and eager for a full and fair hearing to take place in court.” This post Buyer beware: Women’s safety is a ke

Simcha Fisher interviews deacon and iconographer Charles Rohrbacher, who says these “windows of heaven” are images that proclaim the Gospel. And images and the Gospel are meant to go together. Deacon Rohrbacher says, “But each icon at its truest is the fruit of prayer.” He adds, “It’s done with love and prayer and intentionality of service, and out of that, at the end, there’s an icon.” The deacon said: “You don’t want to write slogans all over the windows to heaven. You want them to be clear so you can see Christ and Mary and the saints through the images.” This post Alaskan deacon proclaims the Gospel through icons appeared on Our Sunday Visitor.

Columnist Kenneth Craycraft discusses the difficulties of supporting people with gender dysphoria or who identify as transgender due to the dominance of other groups and ideologies that distort the issues, making it difficult to have meaningful conversations. Craycraft endorses a recent column by Elizabeth Scalia who provides a template for thoughtful consideration about transgender issues and skillfully frames the broader issue of gender dysphoria and transgenderism. Dylan Mulvaney, who commercializes “performance art” through the “365 Days of Girlhood” TikTok series, is used as an example of someone who hurts the cause of people with gender dysphoria. Craycraft argues that people like Mulvaney prevent authentic debate about real issues of sexual attraction and gender identity and make it difficult for those who genuinely struggle with gender identity to be treated with the love and compassion that they are due. This post How gender ideology is co-opting peopl