Of Many Things
No, court-packing won’t fix the Supreme Court (or the rest of our broken politics)
Franklin Roosevelt tried court packing in 1937. It was a bad idea then, and it is a bad idea now, Matt Malone, S.J. writes.
Editorials
Editorial: ‘Fratelli Tutti’ challenges the American way of life. Are we listening?
Francis reminds us that it is always people who suffer from these injustices: the poor, the disabled, women, racial minorities, migrants, refugees, the elderly, prisoners, the unborn, the lonely.
Short Take
Reforms don’t work. The police must be defunded.
The moral legitimacy of modern policing is poisoned by Its racist and anti-worker roots, writes Dwayne David Paul. We must give up the idea that the state provides safety through force and violence.
Don’t abolish the police. Reimagine law enforcement.
Law enforcement in the United States has been tainted by racism, writes Tobias Winright, but we can reimagine and cultivate a new culture of ”just policing.”
Dispatches
Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy has thousands of asylum seekers still stuck at the border
“Asylum on the border is pretty much impossible,” a legal advocate with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, said. “Covid is being used as an excuse to close the border.”
In-person classes boosts enrollment for some Catholic schools, but that won’t save them all.
With many public schools still in virtual mode, parents are taking a new look at Catholic education. But Michael O’Loughlin reports that the reprieve from declining enrollment may be temporary.
New poll: 36 percent of young Catholics say they will attend Mass less often after pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic may have long-term effects on Mass attendance, writes Mark M. Gray, detailing the results of a new CARA survey, with many young people hesitant to return to the pews.
GoodNews
Who has the ‘greenest’ Catholic diocese in the U.S? Maybe Virginia.
The Diocese of Richmond has responded to the call to care for our common home with a project that will soon generate 1.6 million kilowatt-hours of solar electricity every year.
Features
The church is losing touch with working-class Catholics
Mass attendance and Catholic affiliation have been eroding steadily since the 1970s for all income brackets, but the sharpest decline has been among the two bottom economic quartiles.
The American ‘way of life’ is unsustainable for so many. Is it time to build radical forms of community?
As a reporter, it is my job to follow along as individuals and communities try to figure out who they want to be and how they want to live.
Faith and Reason
A diversity of authority: Church governance throughout history
Different modes of authority and models of governance have existed in the Catholic Church’s history, often in response to the need for church reform.
Who governs the Catholic Church? It’s an open question.
History shows that authority in the church has taken many forms.
Faith in Focus
I was educated by abusive priests. What should I do with the gifts they gave me?
I loved my school while I was there. I trusted its people to keep me safe, and they did. But was I just lucky?
In defense of people-watching after Communion
After months of Zoom liturgies, I am beginning to think people-watching at Mass can itself be an opportunity for deeper communion.
Ideas
Reading C. S. Lewis in the Time of Covid
The question Lewis proposed is analogous to the one we have to deal with now: What use is it to study during wartime?
Books
Review: The Native American fight for survival in a white world
Stephen Graham Jones’s new novel creates an extraordinary portrait of sacrifice and costly reconciliation.
Review: Stories of hope in a weary world
The stories in Valerie Sayers’s new collection are populated with characters who strive to hang on to something good.
Review: Women, chronic illness and resurrection
Sarah Ramey in her new book: “My case went unsolved for fourteen years because no one would listen to me and the reason they would not listen to me is because I am a woman.”
Review: Charlie Kaufman at his most surreal
Charlie Kaufman’s debut novel is not for the faint of heart. But it rewards the effort to read through a story about self-perception and the internal monologues that rattle through all of our heads.
Poetry
Not Silence
blindness is not darkness
Prayer in a Laundromat
do not assay us too harshly that were ever more tin than gold
The Word
When women are central figures
This is an important parable about personal accountability and responsibility.
Faith is active care for others, not just belief
Christ the King is present now among the poor, the immigrants, the sick and the imprisoned.
What does it mean to ‘be alert’ during Advent?
We must be mindful of what is happening to us and around us, responsible for ourselves, our actions and our community.
Living like Christ means being a saint.
The Beatitudes can be read with an eye to the present, not only the future.
Seeing the ‘Woman of Power’
Resources (money, talents, faith) should be strengthened and increased, as the woman of power’s example makes clear.
Last Take
What I will teach my children about Ruth Bader Ginsburg
To realize Ginsburg’s vision for authentic equality between men and women, we will have to point our children to those who recognize unborn life not as a hindrance but as the reason for greater solidarity with one another.
Faith
When women are central figures
This is an important parable about personal accountability and responsibility.
A diversity of authority: Church governance throughout history
Different modes of authority and models of governance have existed in the Catholic Church’s history, often in response to the need for church reform.
The church is losing touch with working-class Catholics
Mass attendance and Catholic affiliation have been eroding steadily since the 1970s for all income brackets, but the sharpest decline has been among the two bottom economic quartiles.
Faith is active care for others, not just belief
Christ the King is present now among the poor, the immigrants, the sick and the imprisoned.
What does it mean to ‘be alert’ during Advent?
We must be mindful of what is happening to us and around us, responsible for ourselves, our actions and our community.
Living like Christ means being a saint.
The Beatitudes can be read with an eye to the present, not only the future.
I was educated by abusive priests. What should I do with the gifts they gave me?
I loved my school while I was there. I trusted its people to keep me safe, and they did. But was I just lucky?
Seeing the ‘Woman of Power’
Resources (money, talents, faith) should be strengthened and increased, as the woman of power’s example makes clear.
Who governs the Catholic Church? It’s an open question.
History shows that authority in the church has taken many forms.
Editorial: ‘Fratelli Tutti’ challenges the American way of life. Are we listening?
Francis reminds us that it is always people who suffer from these injustices: the poor, the disabled, women, racial minorities, migrants, refugees, the elderly, prisoners, the unborn, the lonely.
In defense of people-watching after Communion
After months of Zoom liturgies, I am beginning to think people-watching at Mass can itself be an opportunity for deeper communion.
New poll: 36 percent of young Catholics say they will attend Mass less often after pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic may have long-term effects on Mass attendance, writes Mark M. Gray, detailing the results of a new CARA survey, with many young people hesitant to return to the pews.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts