Jesuit School Spotlight
Finding God in math class (and physics and English, too)
How do Jesuit teachers talk about God in the classroom? A group of teachers from St. Louis University High School reflect.
Of Many Things
What Queen Elizabeth can teach Americans
The present age of polarization has unleashed the most ferocious forces, which seem hellbent on creating a narrow unity only through cynical division.
Your Take
Your Take: The abortion debate continues
Many readers disagreed with the position of the editorial board of America magazine after it voiced its support for the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Editorials
Why we need a eucharistic revival
The danger we face as a church is not so much hostility toward the church and its sacraments, but apathy.
Short Take
I support overturning Roe. But pro-lifers need to understand why so many Americans fear this decision.
To convince our fellow citizens to protect the lives of the unborn we need to recognize why many of them do not trust or easily understand our good motives.
Dispatches
Bishop McElroy is the only North American among a new crop of cardinals
Cardinal-designate McElroy told reporters on May 31 that he believed the pope selected him because he wanted a cardinal on the U.S. West Coast and because of his support for the pope’s pastoral and ecclesial priorities.
A young Canadian woman is reconsidering medically assisted dying after a GoFundMe campaign
For a young woman with acute environmental hypersensitivity, applying to government authorities for assistance with dying has proved far easier than dealing with the housing bureaucracy.
Interview: The future of Catholic teaching on sexuality and family life
Lisa Sowle Cahill, professor of moral theology at Boston College, talks about the legacy of “Amoris Laetitia” for young people and opponents of Pope Francis.
The life of a priest in war-torn Ukraine
“The church of Odesa shares the pain of its inhabitants. The church is not a building; it is people,” said Archpriest Maximian Pogorelovskiy, a spokesperson for the Orthodox Diocese of Odesa.
Two years after George Floyd’s murder, bishops’ task force fights against ‘collective sin of racism’
The murder of George Floyd at the hands of police two years ago in Minneapolis sparked a national conversation about racism that continues today—the anniversary of his tragic death.
War, Covid-19 and climate change have collided to bring about another global crisis: hunger
Long before Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, smaller conflicts have been displacing people and disrupting growing seasons and food markets around the world.
Father Sam Sawyer named 15th editor in chief of America magazine
Sam Sawyer, S.J., will take the helm of the 113-year-old magazine following the departure of the current president and editor in chief, Matt Malone, S.J., later this year.
Features
Should Catholics diet?
If we can accept that God loves us as we are, that we are worthy of love at any size, is it wrong to also desire to be thinner and to take steps to reach that goal?
Bishop McElroy: Pope Francis and Vatican II give us a road map for the synodal process
Having begun the process of synodality, we should not let the process go dormant until after the pope’s apostolic exhortation on the universal synod is released in 2024.
Faith and Reason
How popes became so powerful—and how Pope Francis could reverse the trend
The papalization of the church reached its most robust form in the first half of the 20th century, but it might be seeing its twilight under Pope Francis.
What Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart reveals: The Eucharist is about friendship
The writings of St. Ignatius Loyola and the traditional Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart highlight a specific aspect of the Eucharist: friendship.
Faith in Focus
Parenting as a Catholic pacifist in an era of mass shootings
I have called myself a peacemaker. I have never held a gun and never want to. But I am also a father, and I will always protect my children.
Seven tips for a more joyful priesthood
The greatest evangelization we can offer is a joyful church.
I’m afraid to return to Mass in person. And it’s not because of Covid.
I’m afraid, but not of the virus. Frankly, I’m afraid of what I will see, of what I will hear when I get there and step inside the church.
Books
Review: What is a woman?
Kaya Oakes offers reflections on what it means to live as a woman today. This meaning grappling with growing older in a society and a church that both continue to prize feminine youth, fecundity and docility above all else.
Review: The history of Yellowstone, our greatest national park
Readable, well researched and carefully documented, ‘Saving Yellowstone’ does not get bogged down in minutiae in its history of the park.
Review: The limits of the human body
In ‘The Body Scout,’ Lincoln Michel explores the limits of what it means to be human through a future in which companies tempt consumers with upgrades—new arms, organs and more.
Review: Ten tales of Dubliners
In his new 10-story collection, Roddy Doyle tells stories of catastrophes—unemployment, a deadly storm and Covid-19—and their socioeconomic and psychological fallout on Irish families.
Review: Fintan O’Toole’s personal history of Ireland traces the fall of Catholicism and rise of capitalism on the Emerald Isle
Fintan O’Toole reflects on the last 64 years in Ireland—a time when Irish life was almost completely transformed.
Review: Learning how to live in the presence of God from a Cistercian monk and bishop
The thrust of Bishop Erik Varden’s new book can be summed up in words preached on Pentecost Sunday: “We shouldn’t domesticate the Spirit. It comforts, but also devours.”
Art
The secret Catholic life of Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol remains an enigma.
Poetry
The fall
I mistake my friend for a gun, and he offers to smuggle me out of harm.
Lord of Hope and Misery
I eat sugar cookies for breakfast. I should eat bird seed.
Discernment of Spirits
for years I’d be the cranky older son, jealous about the party.
Last Take
Catholics: Stop spending an unholy amount on weddings
The joy of marriage is getting overshadowed by the pressure for increasingly expensive and elaborate weddings. Parish priest could gently remind couples that it does not have to be this way.
Faith
Bishop McElroy is the only North American among a new crop of cardinals
Cardinal-designate McElroy told reporters on May 31 that he believed the pope selected him because he wanted a cardinal on the U.S. West Coast and because of his support for the pope’s pastoral and ecclesial priorities.
Finding God in math class (and physics and English, too)
How do Jesuit teachers talk about God in the classroom? A group of teachers from St. Louis University High School reflect.
Should Catholics diet?
If we can accept that God loves us as we are, that we are worthy of love at any size, is it wrong to also desire to be thinner and to take steps to reach that goal?
Why we need a eucharistic revival
The danger we face as a church is not so much hostility toward the church and its sacraments, but apathy.
How popes became so powerful—and how Pope Francis could reverse the trend
The papalization of the church reached its most robust form in the first half of the 20th century, but it might be seeing its twilight under Pope Francis.
What Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart reveals: The Eucharist is about friendship
The writings of St. Ignatius Loyola and the traditional Catholic devotion to the Sacred Heart highlight a specific aspect of the Eucharist: friendship.
Parenting as a Catholic pacifist in an era of mass shootings
I have called myself a peacemaker. I have never held a gun and never want to. But I am also a father, and I will always protect my children.
Interview: The future of Catholic teaching on sexuality and family life
Lisa Sowle Cahill, professor of moral theology at Boston College, talks about the legacy of “Amoris Laetitia” for young people and opponents of Pope Francis.
Catholics: Stop spending an unholy amount on weddings
The joy of marriage is getting overshadowed by the pressure for increasingly expensive and elaborate weddings. Parish priest could gently remind couples that it does not have to be this way.
Bishop McElroy: Pope Francis and Vatican II give us a road map for the synodal process
Having begun the process of synodality, we should not let the process go dormant until after the pope’s apostolic exhortation on the universal synod is released in 2024.
Seven tips for a more joyful priesthood
The greatest evangelization we can offer is a joyful church.
I’m afraid to return to Mass in person. And it’s not because of Covid.
I’m afraid, but not of the virus. Frankly, I’m afraid of what I will see, of what I will hear when I get there and step inside the church.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts