Catholics are both/and people. But we still face stark choices in following Christ.
Catholicism is a both/and religion, true, but that puts before us some strong binaries between having faith in Christ or not, between serving the least of these or not.
Review: Kathleen Norris on a sister’s love
Kathleen Norris’s profound new book ‘Rebecca Sue’ is a kind of double memoir of Norris’s sister, who had suffered from severe mental disabilities, as well of the author herself and her family.
Review: Christianity against empire
Do you know that hauntingly beautiful moment in a story where the narrator zooms the perspective out just enough for you to see that everything is connected? When the shocking realization dawns that the plot was driven by an unseen force the entire time, our experience of the story itself is altered. Reading Kat Armas’s…
Review: How the suburbs changed the church
Focusing on Long Island, in New York, Stephen Koeth’s ‘Crabgrass Catholicism’ traces the institutional adjustments that occurred as once-urban Catholic families took up suburban living after World War II.
One
O, heaven does not have to be too high
Aubade at Eighty Five
And you pray for help, one day at a time, sweet Jesus, as the mantra goes.
Journeying through Lent with Augustine and Pope Leo
If you really want to understand the harrowing, vulnerable journey of Lent, picture the plight of the migrant.
Finding my ancestors on a famine walk through Ireland
This 12-mile walk is a choice for me, my sister and my niece; all of us have traveled many miles to be here today. But walking is also what people do when they have nothing left to lose.
Our readers on the Trump administration’s actions in Venezuela
The editors suggested that the new “ethos of naked self-interest” will render the world less stable. Our readers responded.
Finding (and being) neighbors in Minnesota
I have found myself moved by gratitude for the basic witness of goodness toward those who have come to the United States seeking a better life.
On Mardi Gras, Catholics should celebrate the faith and resilience of the New Orleans Black Masking Indians
In New Orleans, few traditions embody resilience and perseverance as vividly as the Black Masking Indians.
The Moral Resistance to Trump’s Politics of Rage
As the Trump administration demeans American life and liberty, immigration and pro-life activists provide a light in the darkness.
Roundtable: Five theologians on Tomas Halik’s challenge to the contemporary Christian
Five theologians—Erin Brigham, Michael Kirwan, S.J., Brent Little, the Rev. Robert Imbelli and Rita George-Tvrtković—reflect on Tomas Halik’s ‘The Afternoon of Christianity’ and its relevance for the contemporary Christian.
New graphic novel brings Sister Helen Prejean’s story to next generation of anti-death penalty activists
‘Dead Man Walking’ has proven compelling enough to thrive across its many mediums. The most recent version, a graphic novel illustrated by Catherine Anyango Grünewald and scripted by Rose Vines, is no exception.
A former Irish president’s provocative argument: Is infant baptism a threat to human rights?
McAleese desribes baptism as a kind of recruitment tool that ignores how children, as they mature, should be able to freely decide their own religious identity, noting that canon law acknowledges no right to exit Catholicism.
When Trump betrays our allies, America loses.
The nation’s withdrawal from multilateralism means the U.S. will cease being “in the room where it happens,” self-sabotaging a capacity to advance interests or resolve disputes in coordination with allied states.
Antisemitism is bad politics—and even worse Christianity
Mr. Vance has thus far rejected the idea of expelling antisemitic elements from MAGA. But successful political coalitions must sometimes draw bright red lines.
How Vatican diplomats tried to resolve the Trump-Maduro standoff
While the rest of the Catholic world enjoyed its Christmas Eve, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin met with Brian Burch, the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, discussing a deal that would allow Venezuela’s President Nicholás Maduro to escape to a comfortable exile in Russia.
The ‘Stranger Things’ finale puts evil in its place
The final episode of ‘Stranger Things’ reminded me that evil is never one and the same with any human being.
In Beirut, viral ‘D.J.-priest’ almost blocked from performing by hardline Christians
The Rev. Guilherme Peixoto, the “D.J. Priest” or “Padre Guilherme,” is globally popular on the techno and house music scene but a lawsuit almost kept him from spinning records in Beirut.
Baptizing the lie about ICE and the killing of Renee Nicole Good
Renee Nicole Good made for an easy culprit for those desperate to justify ICE’s actions. After all, she was already dead.
We need Catholic just war theory now more than ever
The U.S. attack on Venezuela presents a moment to examine the continuing relevance of just war theory—especially since it is withering away with the Trump administration’s “Rambo” militarism.
Faith
Behind the scenes of Pope Leo XIV’s election
America’s senior Vatican correspondent chronicles the moments leading to the first American pope.
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