As I was getting ready for tonight, I remembered a line from the Israeli peace negotiator who said that pessimists are simply optimists with experience. 

If "religio" is translated as being bound to a particular outlook on life, then everyone is religious. 

Let me begin with Bambino Gesù.

After Ann Widdecombe's impassioned address, the Oxford Union voted by a huge margin (224 to 49) to affirm the principle of free speech. 

When I sat down to write these remarks, I did it knowing that this talk will probably be the last one I give as Archbishop of Philadelphia. So the words matter. 

It was the late 1990s, and I went up to "Rolling Stone" on Sixth Avenue in Manhattan to say hello to my old friend Bobby Love who was the longtime managing editor.

"Master," said the young man, "Your way of life is the noblest I've ever known, and when I hear your words about God I seem almost to touch the heavens."

A chronic temptation of the historian is to play the "Monday morning quarterback" who assumes that he would have made a correct decision in a past crisis. 

It is estimated that about one-third of the globe's population suffers from religious persecution.