Jesuit School Spotlight
‘I am very grateful I taught girls’: teaching theology at a Jesuit school for young women
A graduate of Regis Jesuit High School in Denver interviews her former theology teacher on her experiences in and out of the classroom.
Of Many Things
We have to be willing to talk about gender and ordination. But let’s first understand the tradition.
We should always heed the words of the Lord and “be not afraid” to talk about challenging questions and how they affect our faith lives.
Your Take
From 1966: Without ordination, can women be equal in the church?
In the July 23, 1966, issue of America, the cover story featured an essay from a prominent female Catholic philosopher, Mary-Angela Harper, on the nature of womanhood and the question of women’s ordination. Below is a curated selection of some of the letters Ms. Harper’s view evoked
Editorials
Lessons out of Afghanistan: Democracy cannot be exported by force—no matter what the ‘experts’ say.
Any exit from Afghanistan was bound to be fraught. That does not reduce our responsibility to assess the Biden administration’s missteps.
Short Take
Being family: What Latino Catholics can teach the rest of the U.S. church about community
An upcoming CARA survey reveals that Spanish-language Catholic groups are perceived as warmer and more familial. Meanwhile, English-language faith groups can be too goal-oriented and individualistic.
Dispatches
Brazil once depended on Europe for vocations. Now it sends women religious missionaries all over the world.
Besides taking up the challenge of exploring new frontiers of evangelization in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Brazilian women religious have also become evangelizers of the “old continent,” Europe, where female vocations have radically declined in recent decades.
Survey: Catholics are ready for women leaders in their church
Increasing the visibility of women and tapping the wisdom they offer will surely encourage laypeople around the world. Religious sisters and nuns were ranked more trustworthy than bishops, priests and the Vatican in a recent survey of U.S. Catholics sponsored by America.
Despite earthquake and political turmoil, a Felician sister says Haitians remain ‘people of hope’
To outsiders, the situation can appear completely beyond repair, but that is not the reality Sister Marilyn has come to know in Jacmel. “People need to hear that Haitians are survivors,” she said. “They are people of hope.”
Covid-19 took music from our Masses. Now it’s (slowly) coming back.
As vaccination rates permit the lifting of some Covid-19 restrictions, congregations are easing back into singing. Here’s what music ministers have learned over the past year.
GoodNews
A young mother delayed chemotherapy to save her unborn child. Now Pope Francis is advancing her cause for sainthood.
Maria Cristina Cella Mocellin continued with the pregnancy and opted for treatment that would not jeopardize the life of her child, Riccardo, who was born in 1994.
Features
America’s child care crisis and Catholic social teaching
Human beings matter to our common life regardless of whether they are seen as independent and productive members of society.
Women are rising to new heights at the Vatican. Could they change the church forever?
There is a long way to go before women’s voices are satisfactorily integrated into the central leadership of the church.
Faith and Reason
We cannot separate the question of women’s ordination from the church’s history of sexism
While at the surface the question about women’s ordination has been asked and answered, rarely has it been asked in this new context where women’s full human dignity is unreservedly affirmed and defended.
Women in the College of Cardinals: A modest proposal for a more equal (and prophetic) church
More pressing than the question of whether women can be ordained to the priesthood is the reality that clericalism and sexism have created and sustained a system in which women are treated as second-class citizens.
Faith in Focus
I lost my baby and my father. But not my trust in God.
My parents instilled in me the lesson that no matter what life threw at me, God would always be there to guide me.
I won the cooking competition ‘Chopped.’ But as a Catholic sister, my ministry focuses on a deeper hunger.
My vocation is about a far deeper encounter than a TV show about food can offer, and years later I discovered one of the most profound manifestations of this among children before the Bread of Life himself.
Catholics need better conversations about women’s sexual health. Here are 3 places to start.
Better sexual education can help uphold the dignity of women’s embodied existence and diminish damaging stigmas.
Vantage Point
Avery Dulles on women and the priesthood (from 1996)
Responses to 10 of the principal objections that are commonly raised against the Catholic Church’s teaching on the ordination of women.
Books
Sinéad O’Connor longs for transcendence in ‘Rememberings’
At the heart of Sinéad O’Connor’s new memoir is her sense of transcendence and her longing for it, as well as the depth of her religious imagination since childhood.
Inside the catastrophe itself: Blame and shame in the short stories of Danielle Evans
Many of the short stories in Danielle Evans’s new collection address the reality that so many of our current conflicts center on how to understand, heal from, punish, honor or make amends for past actions.
The afterlife is having a moment. ‘Beyond’ will help Christians and nonbelievers alike discuss what lies beyond the grave.
With her new book ‘Beyond,’ Catherine Wolff mixes well-written impressionistic summaries of various religious perspectives with personal anecdotes to answer the age-old question of what lies beyond the grave.
Kirstin Valdez Quade’s debut novel explores grace and tension across five generations of a New Mexico Catholic family
In ‘The Five Wounds,’ Kirstin Valdez Quade depicts a family in which each member embodies human weaknesses yet remains worthy of love. Each finds they are stronger together than any of them is alone.
Music
Mandolinist and singer-songwriter Chris Thile writes psalms for those who struggle to believe — or belong
In “Laysongs,” mandolinist Chris Thile lays theatrics and sea captains aside and sings simply and honestly about his struggle to believe.
Poetry
Trauma Studies
I can walk the path of his pain all the way back to 1492
The Year I Was Conspicuous
I learned the weight of being watched. I grew tired.
The Word
As we grieve the dead, we can remember how they inspired our lives
As we remember those who have died, we reflect on how their lives and sacrifices influence and inspire our lives.
Remember those overlooked by society, just as Jesus does
Today’s readings highlight God’s care and power to heal and remind us to pray for what requires healing in our lives.
Want greatness? Serve the suffering
We are prompted to reflect on ways that we can serve one another and are also challenged to address suffering in our midst.
To be Christians, we must first serve the poor
The readings prompt appreciation and action, emphasizing the value of wisdom and the need to serve the poor.
Reimagining relationships: the divine breath and equality of creation
The readings show an evolution of thoughts on relationships: humans and animals, husband and wife, adult and child.
Last Take
Pro-lifers expect sacrifices from pregnant women. Why do so many balk at the sacrifices of Covid-19 restrictions?
When the Covid pandemic gave us a chance to kiss the mantle of poverty and self-sacrifice we rebelled, writes Gloria Purvis. When offered the cross, we ran.
Faith
Pro-lifers expect sacrifices from pregnant women. Why do so many balk at the sacrifices of Covid-19 restrictions?
When the Covid pandemic gave us a chance to kiss the mantle of poverty and self-sacrifice we rebelled, writes Gloria Purvis. When offered the cross, we ran.
As we grieve the dead, we can remember how they inspired our lives
As we remember those who have died, we reflect on how their lives and sacrifices influence and inspire our lives.
Remember those overlooked by society, just as Jesus does
Today’s readings highlight God’s care and power to heal and remind us to pray for what requires healing in our lives.
Want greatness? Serve the suffering
We are prompted to reflect on ways that we can serve one another and are also challenged to address suffering in our midst.
To be Christians, we must first serve the poor
The readings prompt appreciation and action, emphasizing the value of wisdom and the need to serve the poor.
Reimagining relationships: the divine breath and equality of creation
The readings show an evolution of thoughts on relationships: humans and animals, husband and wife, adult and child.
‘I am very grateful I taught girls’: teaching theology at a Jesuit school for young women
A graduate of Regis Jesuit High School in Denver interviews her former theology teacher on her experiences in and out of the classroom.
I lost my baby and my father. But not my trust in God.
My parents instilled in me the lesson that no matter what life threw at me, God would always be there to guide me.
I won the cooking competition ‘Chopped.’ But as a Catholic sister, my ministry focuses on a deeper hunger.
My vocation is about a far deeper encounter than a TV show about food can offer, and years later I discovered one of the most profound manifestations of this among children before the Bread of Life himself.
Catholics need better conversations about women’s sexual health. Here are 3 places to start.
Better sexual education can help uphold the dignity of women’s embodied existence and diminish damaging stigmas.
We cannot separate the question of women’s ordination from the church’s history of sexism
While at the surface the question about women’s ordination has been asked and answered, rarely has it been asked in this new context where women’s full human dignity is unreservedly affirmed and defended.
Women in the College of Cardinals: A modest proposal for a more equal (and prophetic) church
More pressing than the question of whether women can be ordained to the priesthood is the reality that clericalism and sexism have created and sustained a system in which women are treated as second-class citizens.
Women are rising to new heights at the Vatican. Could they change the church forever?
There is a long way to go before women’s voices are satisfactorily integrated into the central leadership of the church.
From 1966: Without ordination, can women be equal in the church?
In the July 23, 1966, issue of America, the cover story featured an essay from a prominent female Catholic philosopher, Mary-Angela Harper, on the nature of womanhood and the question of women’s ordination. Below is a curated selection of some of the letters Ms. Harper’s view evoked
A young mother delayed chemotherapy to save her unborn child. Now Pope Francis is advancing her cause for sainthood.
Maria Cristina Cella Mocellin continued with the pregnancy and opted for treatment that would not jeopardize the life of her child, Riccardo, who was born in 1994.
Brazil once depended on Europe for vocations. Now it sends women religious missionaries all over the world.
Besides taking up the challenge of exploring new frontiers of evangelization in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Brazilian women religious have also become evangelizers of the “old continent,” Europe, where female vocations have radically declined in recent decades.
Survey: Catholics are ready for women leaders in their church
Increasing the visibility of women and tapping the wisdom they offer will surely encourage laypeople around the world. Religious sisters and nuns were ranked more trustworthy than bishops, priests and the Vatican in a recent survey of U.S. Catholics sponsored by America.
Being family: What Latino Catholics can teach the rest of the U.S. church about community
An upcoming CARA survey reveals that Spanish-language Catholic groups are perceived as warmer and more familial. Meanwhile, English-language faith groups can be too goal-oriented and individualistic.
Covid-19 took music from our Masses. Now it’s (slowly) coming back.
As vaccination rates permit the lifting of some Covid-19 restrictions, congregations are easing back into singing. Here’s what music ministers have learned over the past year.
Avery Dulles on women and the priesthood (from 1996)
Responses to 10 of the principal objections that are commonly raised against the Catholic Church’s teaching on the ordination of women.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts