Throughout his papacy Pope Francis referenced ‘La Strada’ in homilies, interviews and public addresses.
Arts & Culture
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Movie Club
‘Sinners’: a tale of temptation and transcendence
As the film’s title promises, there is plenty of sin on display, even before the vampires arrive.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Remembering Peru’s literary master, Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa’s long literary life established him as a monumental figure in Spanish-language literature and Latin American history.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Pope Francis loved literature and film—and artists loved him for it
Pope Francis trusted the imagination and regarded it as a gift from God. Instead of being suspicious and fearful of its power, he urged artists to follow its promptings.
![20160811T1325-1001-CNS-POPE-SYRIAN-REFUGEES [web]](https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/20160811T1325-1001-CNS-POPE-SYRIAN-REFUGEES-web.jpg-388895.jpg?resize=770%2C480&ssl=1)
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Pope Francis the bookworm
Pope Francis was a great lover of literature: He peppered his homilies, talks and even encyclicals with literary references from Dostoyevsky, Proust, Hopkins, Dante and more, and he also encouraged his flock to read broadly and often.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Matins
the wily accuser
tempted him in just the way to confuse a savior:
All this I will give you.
Posted inArts & Culture, Poetry
Lines Composed a Few Miles Above the Air Force Academy Chapel
Daydreams and memory are saving some
Down there from shame
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Who will shape fiction’s future?
In ‘Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel, Edwin Frank explores how reality has been presented and even transformed through the way it is molded in fiction—and how the novel evolved from the 19th century novel to that of the 20th century.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Father Charles Strobel’s life of servant leadership
There is joy and heartbreak in Father Charles Strobel’s memoir, ‘The Kingdom of the Poor,’ but mostly joy.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Tara Isabella Burton’s fairy tale for grownups
If what we need now is the kind of story that restores wonder to the world, Tara Isabella Burton’s ‘Here in Avalon’ provides one avenue to that destination.