Today's Page · Saturday, June 6, 2026

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Pope Leo XIV's Blueprint Metaphor and What It Demands of Catholic Mental Health in the Age of AI
Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical reaches for the metaphor of construction to describe the Church's relationship to artificial intelligence, and the image carries weight far beyond architecture. For those working at the intersection of faith, psychology, and human flourishing, the Pope's framing is not decorative — it is diagnostic.
Designed to Hook: Psychology's Role in Addictive Technology and the Ethics of Repair
Social media platforms did not accidentally become compulsive. Psychologists helped design the mechanisms that exploit adolescent neurodevelopment, and that same discipline now bears responsibility for the consequences. De, El Jamal, Aydemir, and Khera's 2025 paper in Cureus traces the neurophysiological path from algorithm to addiction—and asks what ethical obligations follow.
Possession, Psychosis, and the Clinician's Dilemma: A Practical Guide
A reader asks whether demonic possession is real and how a clinician can distinguish it from psychosis. The question deserves a serious answer — one that neither dismisses the spiritual nor abandons the diagnostic. This column works through both.
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The Seal of Confession and the Architecture of Trust: What France's Parliamentary Debate Reveals About Conscience, Care, and the Inner Life
A recent debate in the French National Assembly tested the boundaries of religious freedom when lawmakers briefly considered requiring priests to report information disclosed during sacramental confession. The provision was ultimately removed, but the episode surfaces a deeper question that sits at the intersection of Catholic theology, mental health, and the science of therapeutic trust. What happens to the interior life when the architecture of confidentiality collapses?
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Twenty-Three Years of Accountability: What the USCCB's 2025 Child Protection Report Reveals About Institutional Healing
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has released its 2025 Annual Report on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, marking the twenty-third consecutive year of independent auditing since 2002. The data, gathered by StoneBridge Business Partners and the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, offers a measurable account of how protective structures within the Church have developed over more than two decades. For those working at the intersection of Catholic mental health, resilience, and institutional trust, this report is not merely procedural — it is evidence of a long arc bending toward accountability.

What Happens to the Mind When Theology Leaves the Classroom

Catholic universities are quietly trimming theology requirements from their core curricula, and the consequences extend well beyond academic debate. The loss touches something deeper: the psychological and spiritual architecture that helps young people understand who they are and why it matters. Presence + examines what this shift means for student wellbeing, resilience, and the therapeutic alliance between faith and human flourishing.

Jun 5, 2026 · 8 min read

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Why Priests in Catholic Schools Still Matter: Formation, Presence, and the Psychology of Belonging

The Catholic Education Foundation's 12th annual seminar on the role of the priest in today's Catholic school raises a question with genuine psychological weight: what does sustained spiritual presence do for the developing person? Research in attachment, identity formation, and therapeutic alliance suggests the answer matters far beyond theology.

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The Missionary Heart as a Model of Psychological Wholeness: What Fr. Barry Martinson's Life Teaches Us

A Jesuit missionary's decades of service across cultures offers more than spiritual inspiration — it offers a working model of resilience, purpose, and the kind of interior freedom that Catholic mental health frameworks have long described but rarely seen so vividly embodied. Fr. Barry Martinson, S.J., whose story was recently featured in Catholic World Report, spent his life in service far from home, and what he discovered there speaks directly to the psychology of meaning. His account reframes mission not as sacrifice but as what positive psychology would recognize as a fully integrated life.

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Elections, Economics, and Inner Unrest: What People Are Searching For — June 3, 2026

California's primary results, bitcoin volatility, and a wave of Reddit posts about loneliness and purposelessness are arriving simultaneously in the consulting room. This analysis applies the Catholic Christian Meta-Model of the Person to help clinicians navigate a week where civic disorientation and personal fragmentation converge.

Top stories

Pope Leo XIV's Blueprint Metaphor and What It Demands of Catholic Mental Health in the Age of AI

Designed to Hook: Psychology's Role in Addictive Technology and the Ethics of Repair

Possession, Psychosis, and the Clinician's Dilemma: A Practical Guide

The Seal of Confession and the Architecture of Trust: What France's Parliamentary Debate Reveals About Conscience, Care, and the Inner Life

Twenty-Three Years of Accountability: What the USCCB's 2025 Child Protection Report Reveals About Institutional Healing

What Happens to the Mind When Theology Leaves the Classroom

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Guilt Is Trying to Tell You Something. Are You Listening?

The Attention They Deserve: Social Media, Schoolchildren, and the Recovery of the Interior Life

When Grief Goes Public: What 'GriefTok' Reveals About Our Deepest Human Longings

Top stories

Pope Leo XIV's Blueprint Metaphor and What It Demands of Catholic Mental Health in the Age of AI

Designed to Hook: Psychology's Role in Addictive Technology and the Ethics of Repair

Possession, Psychosis, and the Clinician's Dilemma: A Practical Guide

The Seal of Confession and the Architecture of Trust: What France's Parliamentary Debate Reveals About Conscience, Care, and the Inner Life

Twenty-Three Years of Accountability: What the USCCB's 2025 Child Protection Report Reveals About Institutional Healing

Featured

Why Priests in Catholic Schools Still Matter: Formation, Presence, and the Psychology of Belonging

Book reviews

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE

INCORRUPTIBLE: Why Good Companies Go Bad... And How Great Companies Stay Great

A Beautiful Second Act: Saints and Soul Sisters Who Taught Me to Age with Grace

The Homefront Devotional: Navigating Military Life with Courage, Hope, and Faith

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The Missionary Heart as a Model of Psychological Wholeness: What Fr. Barry Martinson's Life Teaches Us

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Elections, Economics, and Inner Unrest: What People Are Searching For — June 3, 2026

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