As the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its founding on July 4, 1776, America magazine is looking back at the storied history of the U.S. church.
Features
Posted inFeatures
The forgotten history of the Catholic Church and the American Revolution
The Catholic Church in the United States in 1776 was so tiny that it didn’t play a major role in the American Revolution—but the war affected the local church in important and lasting ways.
Posted inFeatures
Major-League Mass: When chaplains, players and staff gather for prayer, ballparks become cathedrals.
Masses and other religious services are not what one might expect to find in a baseball stadium—but for many MLB players, they are a Sunday pregame staple.
Posted inFeatures
Migrant farmworkers are lonely and scared. This Jesuit leads a ministry to serve them.
Tom Florek, S.J., is the executive director of the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network, a national nonprofit made up of 40 dioceses that minister to the thousands of people.
Posted inFeatures
The Catholic Committee of Appalachia’s half-century mission to heal a wounded land
For more than five decades, the group has listened to the people affected by forces of destruction and shared their stories in a series of pastoral letters.
Posted inFeatures
To serve young Latinos, the church needs a new playbook
If we hope to engage young Latinos, we must ask: Are we trying to provide answers to questions they are not asking, or are we listening to them?
Posted inFeatures
A backyard response to the homelessness crisis in New Haven
Mark Colville is something of an expert on homeless encampments. He and his wife, Luz Catarineau, have spent the last three years operating one in their backyard.
Posted inFeatures
Pope Leo at year one: The progress of an American pope
As we approach the one-year anniversary of Pope Leo’s election, we can see the outlines of a papacy that combines measured deliberation with a prophetic voice on many issues of the day.
Posted inFeatures
Is the Catholic Church ready for a new wave of converts?
A remarkable thing has been happening in the Catholic Church in the United States over the past few years: growth.
Posted inFeatures
The Jesuit praying for Gonzaga’s March Madness win—and targeting for-profit prisons
As Father Pham listed job after job, I couldn’t believe how he fit everything in. He has an “irregular sleep schedule,” he confesses.