Of Many Things
A Special Message from the Editor in Chief
Last week, for the first time in 111 years, America Media produced and shipped America magazine while all of our staff were working remotely. Your support made that work possible.
Your Take
How has your family adapted to schooling at home?
America surveyed parents to see how their families have adapted to schooling at home.
Editorials
To our church leaders during coronavirus: We see you, and thank you.
While the doors of our churches are closed for now, the shepherds have not abandoned their flocks
The Editors: The coronavirus is exposing our society’s deep inequalities
The coronavirus pandemic is a shared experience for all inhabitants of the world, but it is not the same experience for all.
Short Take
We must not allow the coronavirus to rob us of our humanity. How can we (safely) preserve it?
We cannot allow the coronavirus to make us see others as a threat.
Dispatches
Ill-prepared for Covid-19, Mexico City prisons continue to allow visitors
At each of Mexico City’s 13 prisons, hundreds of people are still admitted each visiting day to see their imprisoned family members. For the inmates, they are a vital lifeline.
On the outskirts of Buenos Aires, parishes mobilize for COVID-19
In Buenos Aires, the local Catholic Church is doing what it can to help its flock during the coronavirus crisis.
Stimulus does little to stifle Covid-19 fears in the undocumented community
Ms. Aguila and her husband are undocumented immigrants, but their children are U.S. citizens. If the children catch the coronavirus, she said, they will have health care. But as far as her husband and herself, Ms. Aguila said their only plan is just to not get sick.
An Italian I.C.U. doctor describes the desperate fight against Covid-19 in Lombardy
“The situation continues to be very, very difficult in the hospitals of northern Italy because of the lack of intensive care units,” Dr. Renata Ghelardi said, reporting that the hospital system in Bergamo “is in a state of collapse.”
Features
What 12-step programs can teach us about the true meaning of work
The value of work is that it gives structure to life’s chaos; it is simple, intelligible even when your own heart is baffling; it lets you be of service to others, making every job well done a kind of living amends; and, above all, good work brings humility.
A Jesuit went to Milan to learn Italian. Covid-19 taught him something more.
Milan, under quarantine, has asked me to renounce the particular version of our American response to fear that I have made my own.
Faith in Focus
When perpetual adoration takes on a new meaning
I visualized the monstrance standing still and silent within the closed tabernacle.
Books
Review: How the Weimar Republic paved the way to its own ruin
Benjamin Carter Hett’s ‘The Death of Democracy: Hitler’s Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic’ shows how a flawed but genuine democracy could give way to the vilest regime imaginable.
Review: Doing theology in light of science, and vice versa
The core of Roger Haight’s new project is to ask “what science can teach Christian theologians about our own self-understanding” and to offer an answer to Christians who “either do not know how to process their Christian faith in this context or call it into question altogether.”
Review: The infinite perspectives of Colum McCann’s fiction
Colum McCann’s new novel is structured like the wings of a bird, with two narrative arcs constantly moving toward and then away from each other.
Review: Beauty in the corrupt world of the first century
In his new novel, Christos Tsiolkas depicts acts of profound cruelty and sadism, but also shows the love shared among the early followers of Jesus,
Art
Catholic art for your home doesn’t have to be cheesy
Hanging religious art shakes up class-based ideas about how our home should look.
Film
Beyond ‘The Exorcist,’ Max von Sydow embodied the complexities of faith
Brooding, interior and utterly focused, Mr. von Sydow is a stirring presence on screen, with a weathered face apt to illustrate inner spiritual turmoil.
Television
What if Americans turned to fascism in the 1940s? HBO’s ‘The Plot Against America’ offers an answer.
Reality may have caught up to Philip Roth’s imagination.
Poetry
Premonition
a prodigal daughter returned at last
The Word
How can Christ unite us in suffering?
Peter affirms that all people can receive the Holy Spirit
Who inspires you to serve like Jesus?
It is basic to Christian faith that believers serve one another as an expression of their belief in God.
Last Take
Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib: Why I am giving up elected office and joining the Jesuits
I have come to believe that, while we certainly continue to need people of good will to serve in elected office, meeting the challenges our country faces will require more than just policy-making.
Faith
What 12-step programs can teach us about the true meaning of work
The value of work is that it gives structure to life’s chaos; it is simple, intelligible even when your own heart is baffling; it lets you be of service to others, making every job well done a kind of living amends; and, above all, good work brings humility.
When perpetual adoration takes on a new meaning
I visualized the monstrance standing still and silent within the closed tabernacle.
How can Christ unite us in suffering?
Peter affirms that all people can receive the Holy Spirit
Who inspires you to serve like Jesus?
It is basic to Christian faith that believers serve one another as an expression of their belief in God.
To our church leaders during coronavirus: We see you, and thank you.
While the doors of our churches are closed for now, the shepherds have not abandoned their flocks
A Jesuit went to Milan to learn Italian. Covid-19 taught him something more.
Milan, under quarantine, has asked me to renounce the particular version of our American response to fear that I have made my own.
A Special Message from the Editor in Chief
Last week, for the first time in 111 years, America Media produced and shipped America magazine while all of our staff were working remotely. Your support made that work possible.
Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib: Why I am giving up elected office and joining the Jesuits
I have come to believe that, while we certainly continue to need people of good will to serve in elected office, meeting the challenges our country faces will require more than just policy-making.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts