Of Many Things
As Notre Dame burned, America watched with sorrow
The day before this issue went to press, we watched on our newsroom monitors the devastating fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.
Your Take
The Letters
Reader Comments
What are your favorite pilgrimage sites?
Multiple respondents said they had simply never considered going on a domestic pilgrimage.
Editorials
The Editors: At its core, the death penalty is indefensible
The U.S. Supreme Court is bedeviled by never-ending questions about capital punishment that underscore the practice’s capriciousness and cruelty.
The Editors: Pope Francis’ new exhortation is a gift to the church
On April 2, the Vatican released “Christ Lives,” the third apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis.
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.
Dispatches
Two U.S. churches: One is closing down parishes, the other is standing-room only
While the church continues to shut down parishes in the Rust Belt, a new wave of immigrants is contributing to an urgent demand for more pews in the South and West.
L.A. County Jail begins a mental health renovation
County supervisors approved $2.2 billion in June 2018 to build a replacement with the notable amendment that the new facility would be designed with a focus on mental health and rehabilitation.
Couple creates a new scholarship for L.G.B.T. Catholics
Dismayed by the negative messages L.G.B.T. Catholics often face regarding their place in the church, Greg Bourke and Michael De Leon decided to take action.
Pope Francis urges young people not to abandon the church
This dark moment, he writes, with the help of young people “can truly be an opportunity for a reform of epoch-making significance, opening us to a new Pentecost and inaugurating a new stage of purification and change capable of renewing the Church’s youth.
Israel has only one halfway house for Palestinians. Its future is in jeopardy.
Israel’s upcoming election, which takes place on April 9, is casting uncertainty over House of Grace’s future.
Features
With a church in crisis, why do Catholic women stay?
In many corners of the church, women are not treated with equal dignity and worth. Too often, the structures of the Catholic Church show little openness to meaningful transformation. But our church’s lack of insight, and the breakdown of our own self-monitoring systems, are curable.
Can Christianity in northern Iraq survive after ISIS?
Christians are slowly returning to help rebuild northern Iraq, but many remain fearful of an ISIS resurgence and feel abandoned by the national government.
Faith in Focus
What Rome’s station churches teach us about Easter
The liturgies of Lent and Easter, like the churches themselves, are built upon the conviction that the resurrection changes everything.
John Dickerson of CBS News: Journalism keeps me humble
All journalists should be humble because we are so often wrong.
Vantage Point
How would Catholic media cover Jack and Jill falling down? A thought experiment
From 1977: How Catholic journals covered the perilous journey of Jack and Jill up that treacherous hill in 1977.
Books
Review: Paul Griffiths offers an ‘account of Christian flesh’
Paul J. Griffiths’s latest book, Christian Flesh, seeks a speculative account “of human flesh in particular and Christian flesh in particular.”
Review: Robert Caro tells us how he does it
In his new book about his work, Robert Caro explains why it takes so many years to research and write his books.
Review: Is government the problem? Not really.
The nation’s nonfiction bard, Michael Lewis, makes the case that our government is more important—and competent—than we realize.
There goes rhymin’ Wiman
In Christian Wiman’s new book, all easy answers about how spirituality informs the arts and vice versa are given fierce interrogation.
Art
The Catholic art of Frida Kahlo
Kahlo’s paintings, the vast majority of which are self-portraits, are rife with self-revelation,
A Stonehenge of Saints
The idea to have an open-air homage to the Celtic saints of Europe was the brainchild of Philippe Abjean.
Poetry
Fine Print
All my nights are like papyrus, drenched in tears, a wash of disobedience staining my blank ease.
The Word
Christ calls all of us to discipleship. Are we listening?
The Twelve were servants of Jesus’ mission. Now, after the resurrection, they have become Jesus’ friends.
How do you listen to the voice of Christ?
This Sunday’s Gospel calls us to create that quiet place in the midst of the world’s distractions,
Last Take
Here’s how one Catholic stays faithful in the city of angels
Being Catholic in Los Angeles means belonging to a faith family filled with need, but also with great commitment and seemingly unlimited potential.
Faith
As Notre Dame burned, America watched with sorrow
The day before this issue went to press, we watched on our newsroom monitors the devastating fire at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris.
Christ calls all of us to discipleship. Are we listening?
The Twelve were servants of Jesus’ mission. Now, after the resurrection, they have become Jesus’ friends.
How do you listen to the voice of Christ?
This Sunday’s Gospel calls us to create that quiet place in the midst of the world’s distractions,
Two U.S. churches: One is closing down parishes, the other is standing-room only
While the church continues to shut down parishes in the Rust Belt, a new wave of immigrants is contributing to an urgent demand for more pews in the South and West.
What Rome’s station churches teach us about Easter
The liturgies of Lent and Easter, like the churches themselves, are built upon the conviction that the resurrection changes everything.
With a church in crisis, why do Catholic women stay?
In many corners of the church, women are not treated with equal dignity and worth. Too often, the structures of the Catholic Church show little openness to meaningful transformation. But our church’s lack of insight, and the breakdown of our own self-monitoring systems, are curable.
The Letters
Reader Comments
John Dickerson of CBS News: Journalism keeps me humble
All journalists should be humble because we are so often wrong.
Here’s how one Catholic stays faithful in the city of angels
Being Catholic in Los Angeles means belonging to a faith family filled with need, but also with great commitment and seemingly unlimited potential.
The Editors: Pope Francis’ new exhortation is a gift to the church
On April 2, the Vatican released “Christ Lives,” the third apostolic exhortation by Pope Francis.
Can Christianity in northern Iraq survive after ISIS?
Christians are slowly returning to help rebuild northern Iraq, but many remain fearful of an ISIS resurgence and feel abandoned by the national government.
What are your favorite pilgrimage sites?
Multiple respondents said they had simply never considered going on a domestic pilgrimage.
How would Catholic media cover Jack and Jill falling down? A thought experiment
From 1977: How Catholic journals covered the perilous journey of Jack and Jill up that treacherous hill in 1977.
Pope Francis urges young people not to abandon the church
This dark moment, he writes, with the help of young people “can truly be an opportunity for a reform of epoch-making significance, opening us to a new Pentecost and inaugurating a new stage of purification and change capable of renewing the Church’s youth.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts