A look back at the Second Vatican Council through the coverage offered by America and Commonweal offers two lessons: First, we should not expect the journey of the church after the Synod on Synodality to be smooth sailing. Second, the church is very much capable of getting through such turmoil, and emerging stronger from it.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Paul Horgan, the Catholic polymath you’ve never heard of
Paul Horgan was a favorite of critics for his fiction and non-fiction alike during his long life—but his work deserves greater appreciation today.
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
Lift high the cross
A Reflection for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Remembering Edward Schillebeeckx: the theologian working from the shadows of Vatican II
Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P., wasn’t officially a ‘peritus’ at the Second Vatican Council, but that didn’t stop him from having a powerful influence on the council and on church theology for decades afterward.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘If we don’t get Jesus right, we won’t get the church right’: The life and teaching of Gerald O’Collins, S.J.
Gerald O’Collins, S.J., the Australian Jesuit theologian who died last week, was a prominent writer in Christology, ecclesiology, spirituality and more in an academic career that spanned seven decades.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Elizabeth Ann Seton did more for the U.S. church than any bishop (according to a bishop)
Elizabeth Ann Seton has only officially been a saint for 49 years, a blink of an eye in the timeline of the church. But in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, she is a towering figure.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The British Fulton Sheen: What Catholics should know about C. C. Martindale, S.J.
C. C. Martindale, S.J., played an important role in the life of the Catholic Church in Great Britain in the 20th century—and brought more than a few seekers along with him.
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
Our anxieties are the same as those of the earliest Christian communities
A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Edna O’Brien: the quintessential Irish writer (who was occasionally banned in Ireland)
Edna O’Brien, who died on July 27, seemed to be in many ways the quintessential Irish writer. But her career began with a highly acclaimed novel that was widely condemned on the Emerald Isle.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Remembering Gail Lumet Buckley, chronicler of African American history and a ‘pluralistic Catholic’
Gail Lumet Buckley, who died on July 18, was an award-winning chronicler of the African American experience. She once wrote of herself in ‘America’ that “I choose the cross of faith over the sword of ideology.”