Thomas Reese
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Pope Leo is teaching the church the virtue of patience
Like Francis, Leo understands the synodal process is more important than any teaching that comes out of the event.
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Leo’s France visit shows church and country are changing
Youth in France greeted Pope Leo like a rockstar, European representatives welcomed him as a respected leader who supports multilateralism, reconciliation, justice and peace.
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Service, not imposition: the church’s place in public life
Leo insists the church respects political autonomy, affirming separation of church and state andrejects Christian nationalism outright.
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Why we are not in a Catholic revival
Surveys consistently show young adults hunger for spiritual depth and authentic community. The Catholic tradition offers both, but only if the church moves beyond repackaging familiar formulas for a new generation.
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Pope Leo’s Africa visit raises the question: Is the continent really the church’s future?
Pope Leo XIV brought encouragement and challenge to Africa, pressing ruling elites on corruption while urging bishops to focus on justice over culture-war issues. But demographic and social forces that weakened Western Catholicism are already gathering on the continent, raising urgent questions about the church’s long-term trajectory.
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Why the Iran war is immoral
A hospital is not a fortress. A school is not an armory. A child eating breakfast is not collateral damage waiting to happen. The just war tradition draws these lines in indelible ink, yet the fog of war keeps producing erasers — and generals willing to use them.
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I’m giving up Trump for Lent
Lent is traditionally a season of penance, prayer and self-examination. For Tom Reese, the most honest act of penance he can manage is admitting that his Trump consumption has become compulsive, corrosive and entirely optional — and, while not claiming perfect resolve, choosing, for 40 days, to stop.
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Trump absent from US Bishops’ mass deportation statement
An urgent message on immigration nearly failed to reach the agenda at the bishops’ meeting in Baltimore. Only behind closed doors did leaders push to address the crisis, ultimately empowering four bishops to draft the hard-won pastoral statement.
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Younger clergy out of step with Catholic laity
If young priests aggressively advance their conservative agenda, church alienation could grow. With lay opinion trending progressive, the gap may further depress Catholic identity and parish life.
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Pope Leo a careful canon lawyer
Pope Leo is slowing beginning to reveal himself, not through dramatic gestures but through cautious, lawyerly responses; most of which is scripted.
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