Of Many Things
What a ministry for people with disabilities taught me about the problem of evil—and God’s response to it
Mustard Seed Communities began as a response to the needs of abandoned and disabled children in Jamaica, and God is present even in the midst of the suffering faced by people there.
Your Take
The legacy of Pope Benedict XVI: Our readers weigh in
Our readers offered a variety of perspectives on Pope Benedict XVI and his ministry after the publication of America’s articles on his life and passing.
Editorials
Ten Years of a Pope Who Gives Interviews
In many senses, Pope Francis has proven the most communication-savvy pontiff in history. Francis has proven willing to make himself available to a degree that previous popes never even considered.
Short Take
I support Ukraine, and I am teaching my daughter Russian. As a Catholic, I pray for both nations.
While representing Ukraine as an ice dancer in the Olympics, I made friends with many Russians. And I hope that one day my daughter can greet them in their own language.
Dispatches
Preachers’ progress: America Media launches a new effort to deliver better homilies
The Catholic Church has produced preachers whose inspiring words resulted in immediate conversions. Even today, there are many excellent Catholic preachers, but this does not seem to be the norm.
Pope Francis tells foreign exploiters in Congo: ‘Hands off Africa!’
”Hands off Africa!” Pope Francis said on the first day of his visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Stop choking Africa: It is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered.”
Is Ireland’s civil war finally over?
The peaceful sharing of power by Irish political parties that once went to war may be understood as a triumph of the common good.
GoodNews
Formerly incarcerated men now pursuing higher education find community at Harlem’s Ignacio House
Since 2019, Ignacio House has housed 15 “resident scholars” who study at N.Y. colleges and universities at a site in the Bronx.
Features
A year in the life of a parish in transition
St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn., has been combined with other local parishes due to declining numbers of priests in the archdiocese. Parishioners responded over the course of a year to how the transition went.
Slavery and the Catholic Church: It’s time to correct the historical record
The history of the church was nothing close to a steady, if interrupted, march to eliminate slavery.
Faith and Reason
Why Eucharistic Presence Matters
The doctrine of Real Presence is important for many reasons, not least because it is through the presence of love itself that every Catholic may discover anew the art of self-giving love.
Why Pope Francis sees the good Samaritan as the parable for our times
Pope Francis presents the good Samaritan as the prototype of the fraternity and social friendship that creates the “culture of encounter” and builds bridges of love among all.
Faith in Focus
How teaching sex ed taught me how to approach the synod
I’ve realized that the approach we take in sex ed offers some guidelines that could be useful for the church as a whole as we seek to engage in honest conversations as part of the Synod on Synodality.
Behind the scenes: What it’s like to interview Pope Francis
Some part of me hoped that the interview would help teach me how to be more like Francis. But it’s clear the only thing he wants is for us to want to be more like Jesus.
Books
Review: A Jesuit cardinal in Roman high society
A new collective tribute by a baker’s dozen of erudite specialists adds up to an erudite, if in some parts abstruse, overview of the remarkable life and ecclesiastic career of Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino.
Review: From paradise to inferno in a world of spectacle
With his new novel, Randy Boyagoda has added a witty, rambunctious and occasionally touching entry to the list of authors inspired by Dante.
Review: Sister Jean, everyone’s favorite courtside nun
Sister Jean, the beloved chaplain of Loyola Chicago’s men’s basketball team, has 103 years worth of stories to tell in her new memoir.
Review: God doesn’t make us sick or well. So what is faith’s role in the face of illness?
To face potential mortal illness with wry humor and a taste for the ironic takes a delicate touch, but that is what the United Church of Christ pastor and writer Molly Baskette does in her new book.
‘Sin is the failure to bother to love’: A history of Catholic ethics and morality
In ‘A History of Catholic Theological Ethics,’ James Keenan, S.J., offers intellectual history with flesh and bones and a soul.
Film
‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ and the dark Catholic imagination of Martin McDonagh
Martin McDonagh’s new movie “The Banshees of Inisherin” serves up sad enough stuff to leave viewers crying in our beer. But first we laugh.
Poetry
Good Friday
It’s time to strip the altar. Time to hollow
Holy Thursday
I can sit at your feet, and feel the troubled waters of my body still
Last Take
The Francis Revolution: Over the past 10 years, the pope has recovered the church’s true power
There is a new willingness in the Catholic Church, modeled by Pope Francis, to hold its disagreements in fruitful tension, allowing the Spirit to show new paths forward that transcend those divisions.
Faith
The Francis Revolution: Over the past 10 years, the pope has recovered the church’s true power
There is a new willingness in the Catholic Church, modeled by Pope Francis, to hold its disagreements in fruitful tension, allowing the Spirit to show new paths forward that transcend those divisions.
How teaching sex ed taught me how to approach the synod
I’ve realized that the approach we take in sex ed offers some guidelines that could be useful for the church as a whole as we seek to engage in honest conversations as part of the Synod on Synodality.
Why Eucharistic Presence Matters
The doctrine of Real Presence is important for many reasons, not least because it is through the presence of love itself that every Catholic may discover anew the art of self-giving love.
A year in the life of a parish in transition
St. Mary’s Church in New Haven, Conn., has been combined with other local parishes due to declining numbers of priests in the archdiocese. Parishioners responded over the course of a year to how the transition went.
Preachers’ progress: America Media launches a new effort to deliver better homilies
The Catholic Church has produced preachers whose inspiring words resulted in immediate conversions. Even today, there are many excellent Catholic preachers, but this does not seem to be the norm.
Ten Years of a Pope Who Gives Interviews
In many senses, Pope Francis has proven the most communication-savvy pontiff in history. Francis has proven willing to make himself available to a degree that previous popes never even considered.
The legacy of Pope Benedict XVI: Our readers weigh in
Our readers offered a variety of perspectives on Pope Benedict XVI and his ministry after the publication of America’s articles on his life and passing.
What a ministry for people with disabilities taught me about the problem of evil—and God’s response to it
Mustard Seed Communities began as a response to the needs of abandoned and disabled children in Jamaica, and God is present even in the midst of the suffering faced by people there.
Slavery and the Catholic Church: It’s time to correct the historical record
The history of the church was nothing close to a steady, if interrupted, march to eliminate slavery.
Why Pope Francis sees the good Samaritan as the parable for our times
Pope Francis presents the good Samaritan as the prototype of the fraternity and social friendship that creates the “culture of encounter” and builds bridges of love among all.
I support Ukraine, and I am teaching my daughter Russian. As a Catholic, I pray for both nations.
While representing Ukraine as an ice dancer in the Olympics, I made friends with many Russians. And I hope that one day my daughter can greet them in their own language.
Behind the scenes: What it’s like to interview Pope Francis
Some part of me hoped that the interview would help teach me how to be more like Francis. But it’s clear the only thing he wants is for us to want to be more like Jesus.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts