Of Many Things
The race to claim Pope Leo
We should approach Pope Leo XIV looking not for his alignment with the set of questions we bring to him, but with trust that the Holy Spirit is at work.
Your Take
Catholics and infertility: reactions from our readers
How should Catholics contend with the struggles of infertility? America’s readers weigh in.
Editorials
Pope Leo and our shared search for truth
In Pope Leo’s early days, he has woven together an emphasis on synodality and social teaching with faithfulness to doctrine and truth.
Dispatches
The deadly impact of the end of U.S.A.I.D. and Pepfar in southern Africa
Improvements in health care in Eswatini have relied for years on Pepper and the generosity of the American people. During the height of the H.I.V./AIDS pandemic, Eswatini’s population plummeted, and life expectancy dropped from 61 in 1988 to 44 by 2003.
The ‘Trump effect’ on Canada’s immigration restrictions
“Carney is responding to the [immigration] backlash but also to the Trump effect, which is placing more pressure on Canada to tighten its border.”
Focolare president calls for international peace on visit to U.S.
Margaret Karram, president of the Rome-based Focolare movement, visited the United States to discuss current issues in peacemaking.
In Germany, the Catholic Church grapples with the growing appeal of the far-right AfD
German Catholic bishops say that even where the party has not tipped into extremism, it has failed to reform itself of such tendencies. They charge that a nationalism incompatible with Christianity has become the AfD’s animating ideology.
How Trump’s tariffs are threatening this Irish Christian art workshop
Trump’s tariffs hit an unlikely target—handmade Irish Christian art—and echo an ancient struggle over the sacred across borders.
Features
A doctor reflects on control, vulnerability and living in relationship
Treating symptoms—even treating illnesses—is not the same as treating a person.
A Vatican reporter on keeping the faith amid the Catholic Church’s scandals
What happened when the place I had gone for consolation became the focus of my anger
Pope Francis’ wisdom for our current migrant crisis
What did Papa Francisco see that we need to see? What tools do we have so we can choose correctly? And how do we act following our discernment?
Faith and Reason
Why the Ten Commandments should not be posted in public school classrooms
The Bible itself contains the most powerful argument against making the Ten Commandments a moral guide for all citizens.
The Catholic Church and female leadership: A ‘woman problem’ or a history problem?
Catholics suffer from widespread ignorance of important, historical precedents of both female and lay ecclesial leadership.
What to expect from an Augustinian pope
I listened to Pope Leo’s first messages with Augustinian ears. In his first words from the balcony, and then in his homily at his first Mass, I heard abiding themes from the Doctor of Grace.
Faith in Focus
The spirituality of being a #Boymom
Parenting sons in an era of flailing masculinity
The spiritual lessons of perimenopause: Women’s bodies and the seasons of life
But as Catholic women, we are called to embrace our bodies, with all their changes—hormonal or otherwise—and not to hide from what they reveal at different stages.
White smoke, a new pope and the sound of the Holy Spirit
Suddenly I heard the most beautiful noise I have ever heard in my life: the sound of tens of thousands of people cheering as they saw the white smoke pouring from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.
Books
God and man in America: William F. Buckley Jr.
As Sam Tanenhaus makes clear in ‘Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America,’ it is impossible to understand American politics and culture without grasping Buckley’s immense influence.
Review: Aimee Semple McPherson, America’s first media evangelist
In “Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson,’ Claire Hoffman delivers with a fast-paced page turner on the life of Aimee Semple McPherson. This biography brings into print another review of the achievements and personal failures of this major pioneer of media evangelism.
Review: Dave Barry gets away with it
Readers of Dave Barry’s latest, ‘Class Clown: The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up,’ will find enjoyable excerpts from many of his most notable columns, surrounded by additional memories, commentary and, occasionally, the perspective of hindsight.
Review: Virginia Konchan, a poet of miracles
In ‘Requiem,’ her fifth book, Virginia Konchan takes the sacred seriously. She’s jocular with her subjects, including God, yet in doing so she demonstrates sustained attention toward the divine. God is among her natural poetic vocabulary.
Decline and fall? Christian Smith on the demise of traditional faith
In ‘Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America,’ Christian Smith argues that traditional institutional religion has lost its grasp on America—at least among Americans under the age of 50.
Review: The Catholic fragments of art, faith and sex in 1980s pop culture
Paul Elie’s ‘The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy’ investigates pop culture’s crypto-religious, uncanny symbols of immanence and transcendence.
Music
‘A singing church is a praying church’: The East Brothers’ gifts of faith and music
For Monsignor Ray East and his brother Nathan, their faith feeds their music and their music feeds their faith.
Television
Star Trek’s Gene Roddenberry rejected religion. But he was searching for a god.
Gene Roddenberry’s son said his father was an atheist. But documented evidence tells a different, more nuanced story about the creator of “Star Trek.”
Poetry
Designer Death
Oh, chalice of raindrops
Question
I replied, they say, cool as milk
The Half-Life of Longing
Scientists haven’t studied the isotopes of heartache
Last Take
Pope Leo and valuing the work of women in the church
Pope Francis honored women’s contributions to the life of the church. I trust Pope Leo XIV to do the same.
Faith
Pope Leo and valuing the work of women in the church
Pope Francis honored women’s contributions to the life of the church. I trust Pope Leo XIV to do the same.
The spirituality of being a #Boymom
Parenting sons in an era of flailing masculinity
A doctor reflects on control, vulnerability and living in relationship
Treating symptoms—even treating illnesses—is not the same as treating a person.
A Vatican reporter on keeping the faith amid the Catholic Church’s scandals
What happened when the place I had gone for consolation became the focus of my anger
Pope Leo and our shared search for truth
In Pope Leo’s early days, he has woven together an emphasis on synodality and social teaching with faithfulness to doctrine and truth.
The race to claim Pope Leo
We should approach Pope Leo XIV looking not for his alignment with the set of questions we bring to him, but with trust that the Holy Spirit is at work.
The spiritual lessons of perimenopause: Women’s bodies and the seasons of life
But as Catholic women, we are called to embrace our bodies, with all their changes—hormonal or otherwise—and not to hide from what they reveal at different stages.
Cardinal Rossi: Pope Leo’s greatest challenge will be world peace
Pope Leo XIV “is the man the church and the world need right now” and his greatest challenge, “the one he’ll carry most in his heart, is peace in the world.”
Focolare president calls for international peace on visit to U.S.
Margaret Karram, president of the Rome-based Focolare movement, visited the United States to discuss current issues in peacemaking.
White smoke, a new pope and the sound of the Holy Spirit
Suddenly I heard the most beautiful noise I have ever heard in my life: the sound of tens of thousands of people cheering as they saw the white smoke pouring from the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.
Why the Ten Commandments should not be posted in public school classrooms
The Bible itself contains the most powerful argument against making the Ten Commandments a moral guide for all citizens.
The Catholic Church and female leadership: A ‘woman problem’ or a history problem?
Catholics suffer from widespread ignorance of important, historical precedents of both female and lay ecclesial leadership.
What to expect from an Augustinian pope
I listened to Pope Leo’s first messages with Augustinian ears. In his first words from the balcony, and then in his homily at his first Mass, I heard abiding themes from the Doctor of Grace.
Vatican Dispatch
Cardinal Rossi: Pope Leo’s greatest challenge will be world peace
Pope Leo XIV “is the man the church and the world need right now” and his greatest challenge, “the one he’ll carry most in his heart, is peace in the world.”
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
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Podcasts