Pope Francis’ exhortationEvangelii Gaudium has been garnering much attention, especially for some of the economic views he put forth in the document. With the reminder that an apostolic exhortation does not have the weight of infallibility, the exhortation has been a terrific way to discuss Catholic teaching on different matters. Rev. Dwight Longenecker, in his blog Standing On My Head, tackles the issues raised regarding the wealthy and the poor. We continue to believe the stereotypes despite the fact that...

On Wednesday, Rev. Robert A. Sirico, Acton’s President and co-founder, offered his ments on “Evangelii Gaudium,” the Apostolic Exhortation released on November 26 by Pope Francis. This morning, Rev. Sirico spent some time extending his thoughts during the course of a couple of radio interviews. In his first interview of the day, Rev. Sirico appeared on The Chris Salcedo Showon The Blaze Radio Network: Later on, Rev. Sirico joined host Larry Kudlow on 77 WABC in New York City for...

Good Monday morning to you! Acton’s Director of Research (and author of Tea Party Catholic) Samuel Gregg was called upon to provide analysis of ‘Evangelii Gaudium‘ on Bill Bennett’s Morning in Americaradio show. You can listen to the interview using the audio player below: I also want to draw attention to the interviews conducted over the weekend with Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico that we posted on Saturday, just in case anyone is checking in after the long weekend...

If you had asked me as a young Baptist boy to explain the difference between Protestants and Catholics, I would have said that Catholics were the Christians who “have to do what the Pope tells them to do.” Now I’m an old Baptist and realize how naive I was. (I’m more likely to agree with the Pope on social doctrine than do many American Catholics I know.) I’m still unclear, though, on where Catholics draw the line of demarcation plete...

Imagine the horror of losing friends and family members. Fleeing your homeland. Scrambling to survive in a refugee camp that is over-crowded and under-sourced. You are now prey for bounty-hunters. The price: your kidney. Your eye. Syrian refugees trying to survive in Lebanon are finding themselves in this wicked “market place.” The young man, who called himself Raïd, wasn’t doing well. He climbed into the backseat of the car, in pain, careful not to touch any corners. He was exhausted...

George J Marlin, Catholic author and editor, recently reviewed Samuel Gregg’s latest book, Tea Party Catholic at The Catholic Thing. He begins by saying that he knows many members of the Tea Party who are religious, but “because they do not have a consistent public philosophy that serves as the foundation of their civic activism,” they tend to “go off half-cocked and in different directions.” However, he is confident that Tea Party Catholic will “help fill this void:” Gregg, an...

Pope Francis has released his first apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium(The Joy of the Gospel). An apostolic exhortation …is published to encourage the faithful to live in a particular manner or to do something, e.g., post synodal documents offered to the church in summary of a previous synod and hoping the faithful will do something helpful for the life of the church… Acton’s Director of Research, Sam Gregg, takes a look at Evangelii GaudiumatNational Review Online.First, Gregg points out that this...

Each Thanksgiving brings with it another opportunity to pause, meditate, and express our gratitude for the great blessings in life. As one who recently ed a new baby boy to my family, it seems particularly evident this season that the greatest blessings are not, after all, material. Yet material need is a persistent obstacle, the dynamics of which wield significant influence over the entirety of our lives, from the formative effects of our daily work to the time, energy, and...

With the November 26 publication of Pope Francis’s apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, we have the first teaching document that is truly his own. And it very much shows, both in style and pared to the encyclical Lumen Fidei, which was mostly written by Pope Benedict XVI. Evangelii Gaudium is full of the home-spun expressions of faith that have made Francis the most popular public figure on the planet, and the exhortation is certain to succeed in challenging all of us...

In this short talk, Rev. Robert A. Sirico, co-founder and president of the Acton Institute, offers some general observations about the new “Apostolic Exhortation” published Nov. 26 by Pope Francis. Specifically, Rev. Sirico addresses the economic content of the work, titled “Evangelii Gaudium” (The Joy of the Gospel) and poses some questions for further reflection. And please take a moment to watch this PovertyCure trailer also posted here. ...