Modern disintegration — personal and social — has a precise philosophical diagnosis: the confusion of individual with person. Jacques Maritain argued that this error is not merely academic but the root pathology of alienated modern life. A recovery of justice, understood as ordered relation between persons, is the cure.
A Vatican conference on AI deepfakes, held days before an anticipated papal encyclical, named a threat that Catholic anthropology has long prepared us to understand: fabricated faces and voices corrode the conditions that make genuine human encounter possible. Presence + examines what prudence demands of Catholics navigating a media environment where truth itself is increasingly synthetic.
Two recent removals of priests from ministry in Chicago and New Mexico offer a concrete case study in institutional justice. When bishops act swiftly on allegations, name the harm clearly, and refer cases to civil authorities, they are not simply managing a crisis — they are practicing the cardinal virtue of justice in its most demanding form.
A new documentary opening May 19-20 follows Jesus' prayer in John 17:21 into the present-day question of Christian division. For Catholics working in mental health and human flourishing, the film's argument carries a specific anthropological weight: division is not merely a theological problem but a wound in the person.
Modern disintegration — personal and social — has a precise philosophical diagnosis: the confusion of individual with person. Jacques Maritain argued that this error is not merely academic but the root pathology of alienated modern life. A recovery of justice, understood as ordered relation between persons, is the cure.
A Vatican conference on AI deepfakes, held days before an anticipated papal encyclical, named a threat that Catholic anthropology has long prepared us to understand: fabricated faces and voices corrode the conditions that make genuine human encounter possible. Presence + examines what prudence demands of Catholics navigating a media environment where truth itself is increasingly synthetic.
Two recent removals of priests from ministry in Chicago and New Mexico offer a concrete case study in institutional justice. When bishops act swiftly on allegations, name the harm clearly, and refer cases to civil authorities, they are not simply managing a crisis — they are practicing the cardinal virtue of justice in its most demanding form.
David Sedaris
Eric Ries
Maria Morera Johnson
Tara McMullen
Gregory Orfalea
