“It is not easy to be a Catholic, and it is not easy to be a writer. To be a Catholic writer is doubly difficult,” wrote Jacques Maritain, who nevertheless became one of the most influential 20th-century Catholic writers on either side of the Atlantic.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The sometimes-savage perfection of Catholic parody
Parody, Ernest Hemingway said, is a step up from writing on the wall above the urinal. He was wrong.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
March Madness: Your guide to the Catholic schools in the 2024 men’s tournament
March Madness is upon us, and (as usual) there are a lot of Catholic schools in the mix. Can any of them prevail?
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Baseball, Brooklyn and Seoul: It’s finally time for Opening Day.
Opening Day is a reminder that there are, to quote Bill Veeck, only two seasons: winter and baseball.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Father Pedro Arrupe: a controversial Jesuit’s bumpy path to sainthood
Pedro Arrupe, S.J., is well on the path to sainthood. So who was he? And why do people have such strong opinions about him?
Posted inFaith, Scripture Reflections
The cross is a troubling image. Today, we can’t look away.
A Reflection for Good Friday, by James T. Keane
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
‘There goes the jugular’: Wilfrid Sheed and the art of literary criticism
Wilfrid Sheed’s books are a delight to read, but his reviews and essays are his true masterpieces.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Robert Giroux: the Catholic bookman who edited Merton (and Flannery and Percy and Kerouac)
Robert Giroux edited some of the 20th century’s leading writers, including some prominent Catholic voices like Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy and Thomas Merton.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The ‘Catholic agnostic’ novelist: How Graham Greene questioned his way to God
Graham Greene crafted some of English-language literature’s finest works, part of a fascinating life marked by bouts of uncertainty and the certainty of doubt.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Vantage Point
Walter Ciszek, the Soviet gulag and American freedoms
The death yesterday in a Russian penal colony of Alexei Navalny might naturally bring to mind the story of Walter Ciszek, S.J., the famed American Jesuit who spent 23 years in Soviet captivity.