Of Many Things
What is the solution to war? Forgiveness
In so many places, at so many times, forgiveness is the only way out. In that sense, nothing is more practical.
Your Take
2019’s Most Spiritually Significant Films
Our readers answer the question: What was the most spiritually significant film you saw in 2019?
Editorials
The Editors: Congress must limit the president’s war powers
The killing of General Suleimani is only the latest—and by no means unique—example of reliance on an A.U.M.F. long after its passage and far outside its reasonable scope.
U.S. population growth is slowing down. Here’s why that’s a bad thing
Slower population growth in the United States is worrisome for the nation’s economic growth, but welcoming immigrants and supporting families could be a viable solution, write the Editors.
Short Take
The humanities may seem pointless, but that is the point
Humanities education is imperiled and undervalued in an a society that worships short-term usefulness, writes Santiago Ramos. But there is a rebellion in defense of educating the soul.
Dispatches
Burying Germany’s war dead with dignity is a delicate work of mercy
Locating, identifying and burying these remains is no easy task and has been met with opposition for decades. Strong resentments are still present in countries whose people were victimized by the German army during World War II.
Trump’s new executive order is making refugee resettlement more difficult
The executive order, issued in September, requires for the first time that resettlement agencies get written consent from state and local officials in any jurisdiction where they hope to place refugees after June 2020.
Bushfires are a call to action, prayer and reflection in Australia
The nation’s Catholics have started to reflect on their long-term responsibilities in the face of this unprecedented environmental catastrophe.
GoodNews
Pope Francis appoints a woman for the first time to senior role in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State
The pope has named Francesca Di Giovanni, an Italian lay woman, to be the second undersecretary of the secretariat’s Section for the Relations with States.
Features
The Catholic Hospital That Pioneered AIDS Care
Saint Vincent’s made a habit of serving people on the margins.
Natural Family Planning can be hard and expensive to use. Can new tech help?
Catholic groups offer high-tech, effective options for couples seeking to use fertility awareness based methods of family planning. But first they need more access to them.
Faith and Reason
How St. John Henry Newman can help us understand why Catholics are leaving the church
The process of leaving the church is not so different from the process of joining it.
Faith in Focus
What it’s like to have cerebral palsy at Mass
“Let us join hands and pray as the Lord taught us.” That sentence should not cause me dread—but it does.
How I am learning to live with loneliness at a Jesuit college
College is about learning what it means to belong.
Books
Review: When #MeToo meets the church
In her new book, Ruth Everhart offers striking juxtapositions of biblical stories, parables and teachings with present-day experiences of sexual abuse in the church.
Review: Elizabeth Strout brings us back into the life of Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout examines the human condition in a quiet setting where introspection cannot be escaped.
Review: Walter Rauschenbusch’s Social Gospel still speaks to us today
For Rauschenbusch, the Christian faith had a “revolutionary” potential.
Review: A novel for the age of ‘Laudato Si’’
Richard Powers’s brilliant novel, ‘The Overstory,’ which won the the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a story about people who feel a kinship with all ecological life.
Film
‘The Nun’s Story’: Revisiting Audrey Hepburn’s most overlooked film
One of Audrey Hepburn’s most compelling films—1959’s “The Nun’s Story,” directed by Fred Zinnemann—is also one of her most overlooked.
Music
In ‘Broken Silence,’ a composer brings a note of hope to the church’s sex abuse crisis
“Broken Silence” is more than a concert. It is a musical meditation that plunges straight to the heart of our collective trauma.
Poetry
Pigeon Fable
Little Double-Dutch girls chant / “birdie, birdie sittin’ on a wire—”
The Word
Faith in God requires us to act
By fostering societies in which people support one another, we emulate God, who cares for all of us.
Jesus calls us to live good lives
Matthew depicts Jesus ascending a mountain, like Moses, to interpret Jewish laws.
Last Take
As Christians, how are we called to deal with loss?
I am still fascinated and humbled at the way people know what to do in the face of loss.
Faith
The Catholic Hospital That Pioneered AIDS Care
Saint Vincent’s made a habit of serving people on the margins.
Natural Family Planning can be hard and expensive to use. Can new tech help?
Catholic groups offer high-tech, effective options for couples seeking to use fertility awareness based methods of family planning. But first they need more access to them.
Faith in God requires us to act
By fostering societies in which people support one another, we emulate God, who cares for all of us.
As Christians, how are we called to deal with loss?
I am still fascinated and humbled at the way people know what to do in the face of loss.
Jesus calls us to live good lives
Matthew depicts Jesus ascending a mountain, like Moses, to interpret Jewish laws.
How St. John Henry Newman can help us understand why Catholics are leaving the church
The process of leaving the church is not so different from the process of joining it.
Pope Francis appoints a woman for the first time to senior role in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State
The pope has named Francesca Di Giovanni, an Italian lay woman, to be the second undersecretary of the secretariat’s Section for the Relations with States.
What it’s like to have cerebral palsy at Mass
“Let us join hands and pray as the Lord taught us.” That sentence should not cause me dread—but it does.
How I am learning to live with loneliness at a Jesuit college
College is about learning what it means to belong.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts