A forum of Catholic Thought

What's wrong with Roe?

Dwight G. Duncan
May 27, 2022

It appears that a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court is ready to overturn the legal precedent and binding authority of Roe v. Wade, established nearly 50 years ago in 1973, as well as Planned Parenthood ...

Catholics and the Supreme Court

Dwight G. Duncan
April 8, 2022

Ever since the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett to the court in 2020, there has been a bare majority (5-4) of practicing Catholics on the court, which is unusual given that for most of our history, there ...

Four Spaniards and a saint

Dwight G. Duncan
March 11, 2022

This Saturday, March 12, marks the 400th anniversary of maybe the most spectacular canonization of saints in the fascinating history of the Catholic Church. Pope Gregory XV proclaimed five people saints ...

Tracking God's diplomats

Dwight G. Duncan
September 3, 2021

There's a new book that's just been published about the Vatican's diplomats, their history and current engagements. It's called "God's Diplomats: Pope Francis, Vatican Diplomacy and America's Armageddon," ...

St. Joseph's timely and timeless virtues

Dwight G. Duncan
May 7, 2021

Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, has proclaimed this year a year of St. Joseph because it is the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pius IX declaring St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church. He wrote a beautiful ...

Marking the Gospel of Mark with a fresh approach

Dwight G. Duncan
February 12, 2021

There's a new translation of the Gospel according to St. Mark, the shortest of the four gospels, entitled "The Memoirs of St. Peter." It's by a good friend of mine, Michael Pakaluk, who is also a columnist ...

The background of the Little Sisters' faithful practice of their religion

Dwight G. Duncan
February 7, 2020

On Jan. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it had agreed to review a decision of a federal appeals court in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania that overturned a Trump-era exemption for ...

Surprise! Lawyers are called to holiness

Dwight G. Duncan
November 22, 2019

(The following is an excerpt from a talk I gave following Boston's Red Mass on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2019.) The work of a lawyer can be understood variously. I will mention four conceptions: as a job, as ...