The Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, N.M., is fighting the Trump administration’s attempt to seize a portion of its property to build a border wall. The federal government has its eye on a stretch along the southern base of Mount…
What’s the risk of Trump’s fight with Pope Leo?
I don’t believe President Donald Trump understands the political risk of picking a fight with Pope Leo XIV. My best guess is he believes the unquestioning submission demonstrated by his fawning white evangelical followers exists among all his Christian followers….
White House and Vatican relations reportedly strained
Even though Vice President JD Vance is a convert to Catholicism, relations between the White House and the Vatican may be at the lowest point in modern history, according to a report in The New Republic. At issue now is…
In first interview, Pope Leo XIV takes on billionaires, polarization and war
The Catholic news website Crux published excerpts of Pope Leo XIV’s first extended interview with any media outlet, giving the first look at his perspective on the papacy and the challenges facing the church and society. Leo talked about his…
The Catholic cohort
The first White House press conference introduced us to Karoline Leavitt: articulate, assertive and intensely Catholic. She represents to us the third component of the Religious Right in the United States. For years, we have read about the evangelical Christians….
RFK Jr. credits Catholic faith yet departs from it on abortion
If there’s one thing that differentiates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from President-elect Donald Trump, it’s that Kennedy grew up in a devout Christian home where faith was serious business. While Trump’s upbringing in New York City was marginally influenced by…
How Trump and Harris fared with faith voters in 2024
When Donald Trump won reelection last week, exit polls show he was propelled to victory by gains in a wide swath of demographic groups and buffered, once more, by strong support from Christian voters. In fact, Trump made gains in…
The Catholic Court
Evangelicals have gotten all the attention, but it is the Catholics that are reshaping American life. By Catholics, I mean the six Roman Catholics that comprise the conservative super-majority on the United States Supreme Court: John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel…
The costly victory of evangelicals and Catholics
Have evangelical leaders and Catholic bishops made a strategic blunder? When they decided the cultural war battlefield needed to be the Supreme Court, they engaged in a decades-long battle to have the Supreme Court overturn Roe v. Wade. In the…
Survey asks how Americans prioritize marriage and childbearing
Among all Americans, white evangelicals are most likely to say that prioritizing marriage and having children is better for society, but in real life they are not more likely to be married than other Christians — and previous studies have…
Americans growing less religious and more strictly religious at the same time
In the current sociology of American religion, there are two trends moving in opposite directions. The “nones” are growing in number, while among those who identify as Christian, varieties of fundamentalism are growing. Religion researcher Ryan Burge recently summarized this…
A conservative resurgence in U.S. Catholicism?
Many readers of this column will know that in my religious practice I am by now something of a hybrid, attending both Catholic and Baptist churches every week when possible. This is time-consuming, for sure, but it does offer me…