Reforming the Vatican Curia has been a goal since the Second Vatican Council, but so far the changes have failed to improve its efficiency or responsiveness. Pope Francis is trying again.
Short Take
Posted inFaith, Short Take
The West’s debt to Notre Dame
In the wake of the fire, perhaps today’s “cultured despisers” of religion will come to appreciate how devotion to Notre Dame has been a wellspring of Western civilization as we know it.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
What the sacking of Rome has to teach us about the fire at Notre Dame
The fire at Notre Dame raised questions about God’s protection of sacred sites. But then how could God allow the destruction of Rome just one generation after Christianity became the official religion of the Empire?
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A message to Pope Francis: Be wary of right-wing populists when you visit Romania
The pope will visit a section of Romania with a large ethnic Hungarian population—and a Marian shrine that has attracted allies of the autocratic, anti-migrant Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Pope Benedict’s letter on sex abuse is not an attack on Francis (or Vatican II)
The pope and the pope emeritus are not so far apart: Both Benedict and Francis warn against responding to the abuse crisis with a ’self-made’ church that ignores the Gospel.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A better choice than late-term abortion: perinatal hospice care
For the rare cases in which mothers consider late-term abortions to spare infants from pain, perinatal hospice programs offer a compassionate and life-affirming alternative.
![A home fallout shelter near Akron, Mich., captured by an unknown photographer in 1960. (National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the Defense Civil Preparedness Agency/(397-MA-2s-160)/[VENDOR # 125])](https://i0.wp.com/www.americamagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/postwar_080_v125-330713.jpg?resize=600%2C475&ssl=1)
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A Jesuit’s controversial case for building a bomb shelter
Does Catholic social teaching permit you to mount a machine gun at the door of your family’s fallout shelter? In 1961, this was not an idle question.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Young Catholics aren’t the church of the future—they’re the church of now.
Pope Francis speaks to the ‘now’ of God with his new letter to youth.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
How the Jesuits’ four new universal apostolic priorities support social enterprise
Social entrepreneurs are ideally situated to help manifest the Jesuit mission to end poverty and protect the planet, writes the director of a training and mentorship center at Santa Clara University.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
What we are missing without world-weary nuns
A nun’s ability to find humor rather than outrage, to remain humble while believing oneself to be in possession of the truth, is something we can use more of in today’s church.