Of Many Things
The danger in losing our shared sense of history
What we see and how we see it largely depends on where we are standing. A shared sense of history, of what was, or might’ve been, or could be again, is the indispensable touchstone of our collective judgement, for memory is the soul of conscience.
Your Take
What do you do for loved ones who have died?
America asked readers through our email newsletter and social media platforms what they do for their loved ones who have died. Seventy-eight percent of readers described how they memorialize loved ones with photos and other objects. “I remember the people I love with pictures,” wrote Sister Ginger Downey of Huntington, Ind. “[Pictures] of my grandmother…
The Letters
We need more journalism like this from the mainstream media. Good work.
Editorials
Our enforcement-only immigration policy is torturing our brothers and sisters
An undocumented 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy is not a threat to U.S. national security.
The Editors: two good things trapped in a bad Republican tax bill
Cutting the corporate tax and limiting the home mortgage deduction are welcome reforms, but not in service of a windfall for the wealthiest households.
Short Take
The fight against human trafficking is not just a numbers game
Working on the frontline to help exploited women requires patience and the sensitivity to move at someone else’s speed.
Dispatches
Responding to Texas church shooting, U.S. bishops renew call for gun control
There are signs that at least among some U.S. Catholic bishops, statements of grief and sorrow are being backed up with pledges to push for legislative action on guns.
Surge in 2017 of anti-Semitism reported in new study
A new report shows a continued rise in anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. in the first nine months of 2017.
Independent candidates threaten to break grip of Mexico’s parties in next election
Next year’s Mexican election will host a broader and more diverse group of presidential hopefuls than ever before.
Cardinal Wuerl: ‘Evil of racism’ remains a divisive force in U.S. society
The cardinal’s pastoral letter is among the most high-profile responses from a Catholic leader to continued racial unrest.
Features
Young Nigerians are connecting with Pentecostal churches. Will they return to Catholicism?
On university campuses in Nigeria, the competition for souls can be fierce.
What it’s like going to church when you’re homeless
A church that can welcome homeless people only at their best will be a church where everybody fears to show their weaknesses.
Faith in Focus
10 years after fighting in Iraq, I have found healing in the Catholic Church
In Iraq, I witnessed death and tragedy, and without faith, I had no way to process it.
In prison, writing is an act of redemption
One day we may see one of their bylines in The New Yorker. One day these men will be released from prison.
Ideas
Day of the Dead is not ‘Mexican Halloween’—it’s a day where death is reclaimed.
On the Feast of All Souls, it is to the Day of the Dead altars that the departed ones return, caught almost as if by lure, by the florid colors, the smells and the flavors, of foods they cherished on earth.
Books
In the fight against oligarchy, our best weapon is the Constitution
Ganesh Sitaraman offers a wide-ranging treatment of economic, political and constitutional developments across three centuries of the American experience in Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution.
How do you nudge a religious ‘none’ into a Catholic? Here’s one possible way.
In this book, part autobiography and part explanation of his Catholic faith, Vogt proposes the truth, the goodness and the beauty of Catholicism.
Condoleeza Rice’s recipe for democratic success
With ‘Democracy,’ Rice has written a highly accessible book that identifies the essential building blocks of democracy.
What do we miss when Biblical translations are concerned more with doctrine than ‘plain’ meaning?
David Bentley Hart: The hard words of Jesus can be hard to translate away.
Film
Review: Searching for forgiveness in a town beset by violence and grief
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” contains enough guilt to keep the town’s confessionals busy for months.
Music
Woody Guthrie sang the Gospel
Many of Guthrie’s songs focused on on social issues, especially those involving migrant workers.
Poetry
Grassy Branch Pentecostal Church, Hunting Jacket
on Sam Edes when he’s backslided all he can stand, blaze orange and camo, unwashed, sour breath, headed for the pines, the power cut, the deer blind before he brakes, yanks the wheel hard, takes the turn-off he had chosen against, he’ll still brag about the eight-point rack, the tenderloin, but now the Holy Ghost…
The Word
First Sunday of Advent: He Is Coming!
‘May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.’ (Mk 13:36)
Second Sunday of Advent: Thy Kingdom Come
‘One mightier than I is coming after me.” (Mk 1:7)
Last Take
What does it mean to be a black Catholic in 2017?
African-Americans have a deep and troubling history with the Catholic Church.
Faith
What do you do for loved ones who have died?
America asked readers through our email newsletter and social media platforms what they do for their loved ones who have died. Seventy-eight percent of readers described how they memorialize loved ones with photos and other objects. “I remember the people I love with pictures,” wrote Sister Ginger Downey of Huntington, Ind. “[Pictures] of my grandmother…
First Sunday of Advent: He Is Coming!
‘May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.’ (Mk 13:36)
Second Sunday of Advent: Thy Kingdom Come
‘One mightier than I is coming after me.” (Mk 1:7)
Young Nigerians are connecting with Pentecostal churches. Will they return to Catholicism?
On university campuses in Nigeria, the competition for souls can be fierce.
What it’s like going to church when you’re homeless
A church that can welcome homeless people only at their best will be a church where everybody fears to show their weaknesses.
What does it mean to be a black Catholic in 2017?
African-Americans have a deep and troubling history with the Catholic Church.
10 years after fighting in Iraq, I have found healing in the Catholic Church
In Iraq, I witnessed death and tragedy, and without faith, I had no way to process it.
In prison, writing is an act of redemption
One day we may see one of their bylines in The New Yorker. One day these men will be released from prison.
Magazine
The Letters
We need more journalism like this from the mainstream media. Good work.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts