This year’s Foley poetry contest

S.J.’s and Ph.D.’sRe “Company Men,” by William J. Byron, S.J. (5/11): The fact is, the best way for a Catholic to be guaranteed a tenure-track university position is to become a member of a religious order and to get a Ph.D. Jesuit schools are drooling all over themselves to

Any ground that we traverse is holy ground.

Tracking Train Safety; Egypt's Trial; Assaults in the Academies

It’s rare to hear much about the church in the western United States. Given that the national media and the bishops’ conference lie in the East, that’s no surprise.Still, it warps our sense of the American church. In 1950, the Northeast was home to 46 percent of the nation’s

A key turning point in the relationship between Catholics and Jews was reached 50 years ago with the Second Vatican Council document on inter-religious relations, a cardinal and rabbi told a group of religious leaders on May 20. The document, the “Declaration on the Relationship of the Church

This spring marks the 11th anniversary of my association with America, first as a Jesuit novice, then a regent, and lately as the 14th editor in chief. You might think that after all that time, I’d have learned pretty much all there is to know about America’s storied history and its spec

Freddie Gray died on April 19 from spinal injuries sustained while he was in custody, being transported in a police van. Protests surrounding his death turned violent on the evening of April 25. The violence intensified on April 27, the day of Gray’s funeral, with a night of arson, looting and

A detailed and highly critical analysis of the U.S. immigration detention system by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Center for Migration Studies is calling for a radical restructuring of the way the government handles undocumented immigrants.Released on May 11, the 44-page report tra

I was surprised to find myself one of a small group of veterans at last year’s Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Family, one of the very few who had been present also at the Synod of Bishops on the Family in 1980. I also have attended many synods since then, albeit

My first days as a father in the I.C.U.

The data just keeps piling up. Since the 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey from the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life first noted a substantial increase in the number of Americans reporting no religious affiliation, report after report has confirmed what religious leaders outside the evangelic

Something akin to a resurrection is taking place in the Catholic Church in Latin America, thanks to Pope Francis. The memory of great church leaders is being revived and honored; the sacrifice of bishops and priests killed under military dictatorships is being recognized and venerated; and some theo

The boards of trustees of America Media and of the Saint Thomas More Chapel and Center at Yale University announced on May 21 that Philip J. Metres III, poet, essayist and professor of English at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio, has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the $25,000

The U.S. bishops’ International Justice and Peace Committee urged Secretary of State John Kerry to step up efforts to advance nuclear disarmament. The comments were made in a letter on May 12 issued as the meeting of the Ninth Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

May 28, 2015Santa MartaPope Francis’ homily this morning focused on the Gospel account of Bartimaeus, the blind man who cried out to Jesus to be healed, and whom the disciples called to be silent. The Gospel led the Holy Father to reflect on three different groups of Christians. First, there a

Pope Francis seems to describe his life in the Vatican almost as if he were in prison mdash at least as far as his freedom of movement goes But that is not the first thing he cites when he talks about what he and prisoners have in common When visiting a prison he said quot I think to myself 3

It is precisely the huge appeal of this world sport that attracts the greed.

In his commencement address to Boston College graduates Archbishop Blase J Cupich of Chicago employed an intriguing turn of phrase urging graduates to appreciate the quot givenness of life quot My young friends fellow graduates your capacity to appreciate the givenness the grace of life w