In “The Guilty Vicarage,” an essay on detective fiction, W.H. Auden argues that the most successful detective novels take ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments and individuals to operate as if every day brings with it a new contingency plan. The Catholic Church is no different, in a sense, at least when it comes ...

Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, has said that the coronavirus pandemic may justify the use of general absolution, in extraordinary circumstances, for Catholics unable to ...

Rituals of purification or moral cleansing are common in many religious traditions. For example, ritual washing before prayer, public worship, (re)inclusion, or other religious activities is present ...

This autumn, a Swiss Catholic church installed an AI Jesus in a confessional to interact with visitors. The installation was a two-month project in religion, technology and art titled "Deus in Machina ...

Disneyland might claim to be “the happiest place on Earth,” but for my money, nothing beats a Catholic Church that is holding a Penance service just before Christmas. They are attended by those who ...

The dome of St. Peter’s Basilica is seen through trees in the Vatican Gardens. (Credit: Paul Haring/CNS.) Listen ROME — In places particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic and with severe ...

Young people wait to go to confession outside St. Anthony's Catholic Church in North Beach, Maryland, April 1, during the coronavirus pandemic. (CNS/Bob Roller) The social distancing measures imposed ...

A priest hears confession inside the cathedral in Valencia, Spain, May 19, 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. In an interview Dec. 5 with the Vatican newspaper, L Osservatore Romano, Cardinal Mauro ...