Comment policy

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U.S. Catholic insists on a civil and respectful dialogue on our website, following our Terms of Use. From politics to liturgy, American Catholics are divided on many issues, but we aim to create space online where all perspectives are welcome, provided that commenters remain respectful and polite toward those with whom they disagree. It is our hope that all visitors contribute their views and that no one person or group dominates the conversation.

In order to maintain an open but still welcoming forum for debate, we ask that visitors regulate themselves by these three simple rules. Should the editors determine that a comment violates these rules, the comment will be deleted. All comments on USCatholic.org should be:

  1. Charitable: Personal attacks on writers, public figures, the subject of a story, and fellow commenters will not be tolerated. This includes doubting someone's faith or suggesting that are not truly Catholic in the eyes of the commenter.
  2. On topic: Editors may determine when a conversation has strayed too far from the original post.
  3. Brief: Make your point concisely on our site. Long and multi-part comments will be deleted.

In order to keep spam from cluttering the conversation, we do not allow comments with links. Any comments with links will need to be approved before being posted, and may take hours (or an entire weekend!) for your comment to show up if you provide a link. Likewise, if your comment is flagged as inappropriate more than once, it will go back into the moderation queue until an editor has approved it.

Users who consistently violate these rules will be warned; after a warning users who continue to disregard this policy will be banned.

This website is our house, and all people are our neighbors. Would you go over to a neighbor's house and spend the whole time insulting them? As our parents always said, "When you're under our roof, you follow our rules." If you are not willing to follow our rules, you are free to leave our site without participating in the conversation.

We hope, of course, that these warnings are needed and that all visitors will engage in thoughtful, open-minded conversation with one another. Happy commenting and come back often!