Of Many Things
It’s time for America Jeopardy! 2019! How well will you fare?
Welcome back to “America Jeopardy!”, our annual beach-reading homage to America’s most popular game show and everybody’s favorite Catholic magazine.
Editorials
The true test that will show if the bishops have learned the lessons of the sex abuse crisis
The U.S. bishops put forward their first official response to the growing chorus of justifiably angry and frustrated Catholics who want to see concrete measures and public accountability for bishops responsible for clerical abuse and its cover-up.
Will affordable housing be a major topic in the 2020 campaign? It should.
Seniors, especially those who live alone, face the same resistance as recent college graduates in an economic and political environment that still promotes the costly option of a single-family home with a front lawn and two-car garage.
Short Take
What the debate over deacons gets wrong about Catholic women in leadership
As a woman in leadership in the church, I think we are having the wrong conversation when we focus so narrowly on the question of women deacons that we fail to see the ways Catholic women can—and already do—lead.
Dispatches
‘Sing Hallelujah to the Lord’ becomes the unofficial anthem in Hong Kong
Hong Kong has been rocked by mass protests against a proposal would allow suspects to be sent for trial in China’s Communist Party-controlled judiciary.
This 1,200-year-old Benedictine monastery has been ‘carbon-negative’ for 20 years
The Munsterschwarzach Abbey in Bavaria began their eco-project in 2000—years before politicians or the German public began to worry about climate change.
U.S. bishops adopt new protocols for holding themselves accountable for sex abuse
While the new protocols are designed to include laypeople at every stage of an investigation, lay reform groups and victim advocates say they are unsatisfied, as the new rules stop just short of requiring such involvement.
As violence in Mexico continues to rise, can a new National Guard help?
According to the federal government, at least 8,493 people were killed during the first three months of this year. If this trend continues, the year will end with approximately 35,000 murders in Mexico—more than the already record-breaking 34,202 homicide victims of last year.
Features
When professional Catholics burn out
Working for the church can make it hard to believe in it.
Understanding the wounded psyche of gang members
Another way to get inside the heads of gang members: look at the early childhood loss they’ve suffered.
Faith in Focus
I grew up in a violent home. The suffering Christ reminds me I am loved.
Like many people raised in an abusive environment, I also married a man who treated me with the disrespect and violence that I had been accustomed to.
Books
Review: Why is it so hard for white people to talk about racism?
As the multicultural educator Robin DiAngelo points out in her recent book, “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” many white people fail even to recognize racism for what it really is.
Review: ‘1984’ is about the past and the present (not the future)
Dorian Lynskey attempts to explain “what Orwell’s book actually is, how it came to be written, and how it has shaped the world” in “The Ministry of Truth: The Biography of George Orwell’s 1984.”
Review: What is the role of religion in the academy?
In his book, “Religion in the University,” a reworking of a series of lectures given at Yale in 2001, Nicholas Wolterstorff examines a range of assumptions held by academics.
Review: ‘Dignity’ is a photo exploration of our nation’s deep divides
‘Dignity’ is part a long tradition of writers who left their lives of comfort to study squalor and decline,
Film
Eight Catholic horror films you should watch
Here are eight films in which Catholic horror speaks in less familiar accents, films I have never seen on other Catholic horror lists.
Music
The harrowing story of French nuns killed by the guillotine returns to the Metropolitan Opera
Originally written by Georges Bernanos, the “Dialogues of the Carmelites” was turned into an opera by the French composer Francis Poulenc.
Poetry
Thanks a Lot, Shakespeare, for the Starling
there’s a hole through which reasoning escapes
The Word
Every good work contains the possibility for an encounter with God.
By performing the good work of hospitality, Abraham glimpsed the face of God.
Compassion is the deeper meaning of God’s law.
To follow Christ means to lift up our brothers and sisters with extravagance like the good Samaritan’s and compassion like Jesus’ own.
Last Take
No country can solve Europe’s migration crisis on their own
Any humanitarian action to confront the migration crisis will be met with great difficulties, and as one of the oldest Catholic institutions in the world, it is the Order of Malta’s moral responsibility to find new approaches and methods.
Faith
Every good work contains the possibility for an encounter with God.
By performing the good work of hospitality, Abraham glimpsed the face of God.
Compassion is the deeper meaning of God’s law.
To follow Christ means to lift up our brothers and sisters with extravagance like the good Samaritan’s and compassion like Jesus’ own.
I grew up in a violent home. The suffering Christ reminds me I am loved.
Like many people raised in an abusive environment, I also married a man who treated me with the disrespect and violence that I had been accustomed to.
When professional Catholics burn out
Working for the church can make it hard to believe in it.
It’s time for America Jeopardy! 2019! How well will you fare?
Welcome back to “America Jeopardy!”, our annual beach-reading homage to America’s most popular game show and everybody’s favorite Catholic magazine.
U.S. bishops adopt new protocols for holding themselves accountable for sex abuse
While the new protocols are designed to include laypeople at every stage of an investigation, lay reform groups and victim advocates say they are unsatisfied, as the new rules stop just short of requiring such involvement.
What the debate over deacons gets wrong about Catholic women in leadership
As a woman in leadership in the church, I think we are having the wrong conversation when we focus so narrowly on the question of women deacons that we fail to see the ways Catholic women can—and already do—lead.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts