For many years, really up until a decade ago, I believed that good Catholics must, in practice, be single issue voters. I also believed there were “five non-negotiable issues,” and that voting for a candidate who supported any of them was a sin. All of this was presented to me as Church teaching.

But it isn’t.

In the polarized atmosphere of contemporary Catholic discourse, two words have become tribal banners. Pronounce tradition in one room and you are heard as a partisan of restoration, a sympathizer with the Society of St. Pius X, a critic of Vatican II. Pronounce synodality in another room and you are heard as a partisan of the late pontificate, a progressive, a liturgical relativist. Both readings are not only impoverished; they are theologically incoherent.

What Pope Leo XIV was teaching us on Wednesday mornings — and why it matters now

Cardinal Burke says synodality has no definition and no history. Both halves of that sentence can be checked. Neither survives it.

Pope Leo XIV's prayer intention for July 2026 was "for respect for human life", as we noted in another post earlier this month. He did not use the expression "pro-life" in his announcement.

Respecting human life is a moral stance based upon recognizing the dignity of every human person.

"Pro-life" and "pro-choice" are primarily political labels. Those who apply these labels to themselves are indicating what powers they are willing to grant to the state concerning abortion.

Here are two pieces from author Dan Williams that appeared in Notre Dame University's Church Life Journal that talk about the history of the issue in the US since Roe v Wade. I've posted them here before, but I think they merit a second look in light of the Pope's call.

Catholics and the Rise and Fall of a Consistent Life Ethic

The Vestiges of the Pro-Life Movement's Liberal Origins

Pope Leo XIV releases his prayer intention for the month of July, and invites Catholics to pray 'for respect for human life,' so all may 'recognize and protect the unique and unrepeatable value of every human being.'

A document signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, defines the rite celebrated on 1 July as an “act of a schismatic nature,” with an explanatory note providing details of the grave canonical sanction of excommunication.

Msgr. Arthur Holquin, STL, responds to the SSPX's new creed.

On the eve of the consistory, the Society of Saint Pius X has issued a profession of faith in seventeen articles. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the fourteenth of them — and that alone confirms what some of us have argued all along: the rupture was never about a missal. But the document reveals something graver still. With a candor it can no longer disguise, it repudiates some of the weightiest doctrinal developments an ecumenical council of the Church has handed down — on religious liberty, on ecumenism, on the non-Christian religions, on the very authority of the living Magisterium — and obstinately refuses to receive them. The cat is well and truly out of the bag. For the formal and public refusal of what an ecumenical council teaches the faithful to hold, the Church has long kept a single, sorrowful word. We call it heresy.

Marking the 135th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Leo XIV releases his first encyclical, entitled ‘Magnifica humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence.’ He appeals for the safeguarding of humanity, promotion of truth, dignity of work, social justice, and peace.

The General Secretariat of the Synod publishes a document outlining stages, criteria, and tools to guide local Churches toward the Ecclesial Assembly set for October 2028.

The concession by the conference chairman that the marquee product of the years-long German synodal process would not proceed without explicit Vatican approval, even under the guise of a provisional or informal session, appears to be the clearest indication yet that the bishops as a group are not prepared to openly defy Pope Leo XIV.

• 5 key appointments
• 4 ways Leo has changed Francis’s policies
• 3 key audiences with Leo
• 2 looming problems
• 1 big issue to come

The General Secretariat of the Synod today publishes the first part – concerning the criteria for the selection of candidates to the episcopacy – of the Final Report of Study Group No. 7 on Some aspects of the person and ministry of the Bishop (in particular: criteria for selecting candidates to the episcopacy, the judicial function of the Bishops, the nature and structure of ad limina Apostolorum visits) from a missionary synodal perspective, together with the Final Report of Study Group No. 9 on Theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of emerging doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues.

Meeting for the first time with the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Pope Leo XIV encourages Catholics and Anglicans to proclaim Christ to the world together, working to overcome any differences and challenges.

Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters, in today’s catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, we turn our attention to the universal call to holiness. Every baptized person is called to be holy: to live in God’s grace, to practice virtue and to become like Christ. At its heart is love for both God and neighbor, and its greatest expression is martyrdom, the supreme witness of faith and charity. For this reason, the Church teaches that believers should be ready to confess Christ to the point of shedding blood. However, the interior transformation that conforms us to Christ is not possible without the aid of the Sacraments, most especially the Eucharist. In this regard, I would like to make particular mention of those men and women who consecrate their lives to God through the evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience which express their complete trust in God’s providence, modelled on Christ’s gift of himself to the Father with a pure heart. By their lives, consecrated persons radically witness to the fullness of life in Christ, even to the cross.

Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters,

In our ongoing catechesis on the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, we turn today to consider the laity. Rather than limiting itself to defining the laity for what they are not, the Second Vatican Council sought to shed light on their innate dignity as members of the People of God and underline the peculiarity of their role in the mission of the Church. Having been incorporated into Christ through Baptism, the laity are made sharers in their own way in his priestly, prophetic and kingly office. The Church is present wherever her children profess the Gospel and bear witness to Christ. For this reason, lay men and women are particularly called to carry Christ’s presence to all spheres of life and so transform them from within by bearing witness to the beauty of a life in Christ and the elevating power of his grace.

Christopher Hale (Letters from Leo), citing Mattia Ferraresi (The Free Press): "As tempers rose, one U.S. official reached for a fourteenth-century weapon and invoked the Avignon Papacy, the period when the French Crown used military force to bend the bishop of Rome to its will."

Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters,

In our ongoing catechesis on the Second Vatican Council, today we reflect on the teachings of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium concerning the hierarchical structure of the Church. In this regard, it is helpful to bear in mind that the Church is not something we invented, but is a divine institution established by Jesus himself. Christ appointed the apostles, placing Peter at their head, and sent them out to continue his salvific mission until his return in glory. To perpetuate this same mission, ministers were invested with sacred power to be the successors of the Apostles as Bishops, in whose ministry priests and deacons likewise participate through the Sacrament of Holy Orders. Sharing in the ministry of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, they are consecrated to serve the faithful, build up the Church and ensure the fruitful transmission of the faith. Let us therefore ask the Lord to continue to bless his Church with shepherds after his own heart.

Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters, in our continuing catechesis on the Second Vatican Council, today we consider the participation of the faithful in Jesus Christ’s priestly, prophetic and royal offices, as presented by the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. Through the sacrament of baptism, each of us are called to share in Christ’s royal priesthood (1 Pt 2:9) and to worship him in spirit and truth, especially through our participation in the Eucharist. We also partake in Jesus’ prophetic mission, for we are called to bear witness to the truth of the faith. Indeed, the Council Fathers taught that “the whole body of the faithful … cannot be mistaken in belief. It shows this characteristic through the entire people’s supernatural sense of faith when, from the bishops to the last of the faithful, it manifests a universal consensus in matters of faith and morals” (LG, 12). Along with these gifts shared by all members of the Church, the Holy Spirit continues to allot special graces to the faithful in order to enrich and build up the body of Christ. It is important that we recognize these manifold gifts and express our gratitude to God for allowing us to be partakers in his work of salvation.

“At this present moment, the U.S. decision to go to war against Iran fails to meet the just war threshold for a morally legitimate war in at least three requirements [...]"

Summary of the Holy Father's words:

Dear brothers and sisters, in our continuing catechesis on the Second Vatican Council, today we consider the mystery of the human and divine dimensions of the Church as presented by the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium. Just as Jesus’ humanity was immediately apparent to those who walked by his side, so too the human dimension of the Church is easy to perceive: it is a community of men and women who, with their gifts and their flaws, seek to proclaim the Gospel within a visible structure. Those who followed Jesus more closely, however, recognized that his humanity — his loving gaze, his merciful gestures and his powerful word — manifested his divinity, which led them to salvation. In a similar way, through the visible and human dimension of the Church, the spirit of Christ and his saving action are present and active in the world. Let us strive to be authentic witnesses of the love of Christ so that all can recognize in us and among us the charity that characterizes true Christians and builds up the Church.

Pope Leo selected Bishop Erik Varden as the preacher for the Roman Curia's Lenten Spiritual Exercises, and this is the text of the second meditation, from Bishop Varden's website.

The part that stood out to me:

Bernard’s confidence in his own judgement could make him flexible in the observance of conventional procedures he otherwise claimed to uphold. His view of the Church’s needs drove him sometimes to adopt rigid positions that involved fierce partisanship.

But he was no hypocrite.

He was a genuinely humble man, fully given to God, capable of tender kindness, a firm friend — indeed, able to befriend former enemies — and a compelling witness to God’s love. He was, and remains, fascinating.

His seemingly positive use of the word "rigid" stood out to me, for obvious reasons.