Is clericalism still a problem in the Catholic Church, and if so, what do we do about it? We put that question to prominent Catholics of diverse backgrounds and perspectives. Here are their answers. Today, Inside Catholic concludes its multi-part, multi-week examination of clericalism in the Catholic Church. These items have already appeared: "On Clericalism," [...]

  A few days ago, Russell Shaw offered a thoughtful look at some of the causes, manifestations, and effects of what has been known as "clericalism": a spiritual and ecclesiastical "caste system" in which the few elite clergy are presumed to enjoy a native superiority -- in authority and due respect, in level of and [...]

Jesuit spokesmen, both official and unofficial, rallied promptly -- and properly -- in support of their newly elected superior general, Rev. Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., calling him a holy and highly intelligent man and a natural choice for his new job. What they neglected to say, on the record at least, is that Pope Benedict XVI's [...]

This is the fourth of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, "Was the Iraq War just?"   Five quick comments: 1. My thanks to Bob Reilly for making my point: UN weapons inspectors were back in Iraq months before the U.S.-led invasion. That Saddam Hussein wasn't happy is [...]

This is the fourth of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, "Was the Iraq War just?"   It simply will not do to demote the importance of enforcing treaties at the end of wars to some kind of adolescent "need to save face." After World War I, the [...]

This is the third of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, "Was the Iraq War just?" I take no pleasure disagreeing with an admirable individual like Bob Reilly over the merits of a cause to which he's as passionately committed as he is to the war in Iraq. [...]

This is the third of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, "Was the Iraq War just?" Russell Shaw is an eminently reasonable man, so I am not surprised that he acknowledges that the differences between our two positions are based not on principles but on the wisdom of [...]

This is the second of a four-part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, "Was the Iraq War just?" Sometime in late 2002 I composed a sort of mantra that I then took to repeating to family and friends: "I watched the first Gulf War in 1991 on TV in a [...]

This is the first round of a 4 part debate between Robert R. Reilly and Russell Shaw on the question, "Was the Iraq war just?"   Saddam Hussein's regime was evil and it threatened vital U.S. national security interests. Its extirpation achieved a great good, the final accomplishment of which is still in the balance [...]

On July 3, 1907, in a decree bearing the lachrymose Latin title Lamentabili, the Vatican's Holy Office, predecessor of today's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, condemned 65 propositions that it had found contrary to Catholic orthodoxy. Pope Pius X followed up two months later, on September 8, with an encyclical named Pascendi Dominici [...]