The two most recent selections by the Catholic Book Club couldn’t have been more different: A look at Thomas Jefferson’s quixotic attempt to rewrite the Bible, and Niall Williams’s richly evocative novel about a small village in the west of Ireland.
James T. Keane
James T. Keane is a Senior Editor at America.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
When the Irish fought for Mexico against America: the little-known legend of the ‘San Patricios’
From 1846 to 1848, in the worst years of the potato famine in Ireland and during mass emigration to the United States, one of the toughest units of the Mexican armed forces battling the invaders from “El Norte” was the Saint Patrick Battalion, known in Mexico as the ‘San Patricios.’
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Farewell Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the non-conforming Catholic poet who inspired Bob Dylan and Thomas Merton
The death of cultural icon Lawrence Ferlinghetti on Monday reminds us of the many artists and writers he influenced and was influenced by—including Thomas Merton.
Posted inNews Analysis, Politics & Society
Before Rush Limbaugh, Father Coughlin was America’s first demagogue of the airwaves
Before Rush Limbaugh, there was the notorious “radio priest” of the 1930s and 1940s, Father Charles E. Coughlin.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Explainer: What is an annulment? (And why does Pope Francis want to make it easier to get one?)
No matter how many times you hear it described thus—jokingly or not—an annulment is not just “Catholic divorce.” Church teaching is not that the marriage in question failed, but that the marriage never existed in a sacramental sense.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A eulogy for the WASPs
Amid the somber ceremonies, perhaps today we can wave goodbye to our starchy past.
Posted inFaith, News Analysis
The Top Five U.S. Catholic Newsmakers of 2020
Who were some of the U.S. Catholics who were regularly in the news this past year?
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Remembering John le Carré, who knew that deep down, we all want to be secret agents
John le Carré, who died earlier in December, was a wildly popular spy novelist—and one of the English world’s finest fiction writers of the last half-century.
Posted inAdvent Reflections, Faith
Who is the Messiah? Go and find out.
A Reflection for the Third Wednesday of Advent
Posted inExplainer, Politics & Society
The 15 times a Catholic has been named Time’s Person of the Year
With no small bit of swagger, we present to you: Catholics who were Time’s Person of the Year.