Of Many Things
Why America magazine is global in spirit and content
In 1909, the editors relied on the telegraph to stay connected to their international network. Today, even the editor in chief can use his iPhone to file a column from a bus en route to Bethlehem.
Your Take
The Letters
Reader comments
Are consumer boycotts a helpful form of resistance?
“In the world of consumer products and for-profit corporations,” wrote Kathy Wright of Loretto, Ky., “money talks.”
Editorials
The Editors: The Green New Deal should be improved, not mocked
While it is clear that not everything in the Green New Deal is realistically achievable, what is less realistic still is to dismiss it out of hand in order to continue the pretense that climate change can be ignored.
The Editors: To prevent abuse, clericalism must be uprooted.
Today more and more women religious are speaking up and demanding that the church hold abusers to account.
Short Take
The dignity of human beings must not be measured in ‘usefulness’
People with Down syndrome can accomplish amazing things, but the dignity of the human person is not contingent on measurable achievements.
Dispatches
Catholic leaders resist Trump’s ‘national emergency’ plan to fund border wall
To Bishop Mark Seitz the real emergency is humanitarian—a matter of deciding how best to care for the people coming to the border. “That should concern us,” he said. “This is a group of very vulnerable people.”
The Jesuit institution uncovering the truth (and fake news) about saints
Most of what we know about saints—from the most beloved to the most obscure—comes from the little-known Bollandist Society.
How Florida’s new Republican Governor DeSantis is putting the environment on his agenda
Gov. Ron DeSantis has earned cautious praise from environmental groups who say the commitment is a substantive step forward on water quality issues and underlying Everglades restoration challenges.
GoodNews
Pope Francis leads largest ever Christian act of worship in the Arabian Peninsula
Pope Francis made history this morning when he celebrated Mass for more than 135,000 Catholics from many nations and cultures at the Zayed Sports stadium in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
Features
The value of public penance in the age of clerical abuse, mass incarceration and #MeToo
Where can someone who sincerely wants to repent and atone find guidance or models for apologizing well?
How the Catholic Church is responding to Venezuela’s refugee crisis
Over one million Venezuelans have arrived in Colombia as of May 2018. Colombia is not a rich country, and helping to bear the burden of receiving thousands of Venezuelan refugees every day is the Catholic Church.
Faith in Focus
Father James Martin: Why I Am Pro-Life
The longer I live, the more I grow in awe of God’s creative activity and in reverence for God’s creation.
Books
Review: Hubert H. Humphrey, a politician worth emulating
Arnold Offner’s biography shows Hubert Humphrey as a serious man who sought a serious goal: the betterment of his fellow Americans, whether through persuasion or legislation.
Review: How we can imagine Jesus in his own culture
Jerome Neyrey’s new book displays the many ways in which Jesus was not only “like us in all things” but also definitely a person incarnated in his own culture.
Review: Remaining faithful to fragile gifts
In ‘The Dangers of Christian Practice,’ Lauren Winner shows that even our holiest religious practices create characteristic distortions.
Review: Mary Oliver’s poetic gifts
“Listen,” writes Mary Oliver, urging the reader to put aside questions and doubts as she describes terns wheeling over ocean waves, “maybe such devotion, in which one holds the world/ in the clasp of attention, isn’t the perfect prayer,/ but it must be close.” With Devotions, Oliver, who died on January 17 at age 83,…
Film
The Catholic past of Hercule Poirot
Who, exactly, was the fastidious, mustachioed Hercule Poirot?
Music
How gospel music helped me find my Catholic identity
My relationship with gospel music was forged not just on those Sunday mornings at home with Jackson and in church with my family but also on late nights in the backseat of a 1962 Chevy Bel Air sedan.
Television
The first virgin ‘Bachelor’ challenges secular and religious prejudices about sex
But even as the show mocks and fixates on his virginity, Colton invites empathy and sparks thought-provoking conversations about sexual morality.
Poetry
Psalm 103
The orchid book says to stop watering right before you think it’s enough, which doesn’t help much
The Word
Jesus’ temptation reminds us to use our gifts to serve
Jesus overcame temptations to use divine grace for himself, so Christians must continue to seek God’s purpose in every gift they receive.
Seeing as God sees: transfiguration in a 12-step recovery program
The transfiguration requires us to let go of our masks and let others catch a glimpse of God in us.
Last Take
How can activists win more than a viral moment?
Today, it is easier than ever for activists to command attention for a moment but harder to form the lasting relationships and organizations that are also needed to make lasting change.
Faith
The dignity of human beings must not be measured in ‘usefulness’
People with Down syndrome can accomplish amazing things, but the dignity of the human person is not contingent on measurable achievements.
The Editors: To prevent abuse, clericalism must be uprooted.
Today more and more women religious are speaking up and demanding that the church hold abusers to account.
Why America magazine is global in spirit and content
In 1909, the editors relied on the telegraph to stay connected to their international network. Today, even the editor in chief can use his iPhone to file a column from a bus en route to Bethlehem.
The value of public penance in the age of clerical abuse, mass incarceration and #MeToo
Where can someone who sincerely wants to repent and atone find guidance or models for apologizing well?
Jesus’ temptation reminds us to use our gifts to serve
Jesus overcame temptations to use divine grace for himself, so Christians must continue to seek God’s purpose in every gift they receive.
Seeing as God sees: transfiguration in a 12-step recovery program
The transfiguration requires us to let go of our masks and let others catch a glimpse of God in us.
Pope Francis leads largest ever Christian act of worship in the Arabian Peninsula
Pope Francis made history this morning when he celebrated Mass for more than 135,000 Catholics from many nations and cultures at the Zayed Sports stadium in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.
The Jesuit institution uncovering the truth (and fake news) about saints
Most of what we know about saints—from the most beloved to the most obscure—comes from the little-known Bollandist Society.
Father James Martin: Why I Am Pro-Life
The longer I live, the more I grow in awe of God’s creative activity and in reverence for God’s creation.
Magazine
The Letters
Reader comments
Are consumer boycotts a helpful form of resistance?
“In the world of consumer products and for-profit corporations,” wrote Kathy Wright of Loretto, Ky., “money talks.”
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts