The Fight for Religious Freedom: John Courtney Murray’s role in ‘Dignitatis Humanae’
Today we mark the 50th anniversary of ‘Dignitatis Humanae,’ the Second Vatican Council declaration on religious freedom.
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
It is impossible to really understand what ‘America’ does without a sense of its history.
Letters
Reply All
Our readers respond—join the conversation
Editorials
Our Brother’s Keeper
The release of a new and shocking report concerning the impact of economic change on vulnerable citizens could not have come at a better time.
Faith in Focus
Hallway to Heaven: life’s final steps at an in-home hospice
As the body gets weaker, the spirit gets stronger.
Vantage Point
The Uneasy Dialogue: Catholicism and American culture
The culture that the church faces today cannot be understood as that of the previous three centuries.
Books
Deep Catholic Waters
‘Navy Priest,’ by Capt. Jake Laboon, S.J.
Points of Faith
‘What Are We Doing On Earth For Christ’s Sake?’ by Richard Leonard, S.J., and ‘A Biography of the Spirit,’ by John Haughey
Film
A Force to Be Reckoned With: Mercy, sin and ‘Star Wars’
Mercy, sin and ‘Star Wars’
Poetry
To Purgatory
We kiss the person we love last thing beforethe coffin is shut —Jack Gilbert You lean across the coffin’s gunwale to kissyour father before the rower launches into that long, last voyage to purgatory, while we, survivors, walk and drive onto stree
The Word
Today’s Gospel: Preparing the People of God
The Second Sunday of Advent: How is your church community preparing for the coming of Christ?
Current Comment
Pope Francis falters on bishop accused of mishandling sexual abuse
Sexual abuse needs to be confronted at every turn in our church.
Health Care’s Growing Pains
Insurers in many states are raising premiums and increasing deductibles.
Italian Bishops take practical steps in Year of Mercy
As the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy approaches, many parishes and dioceses are preparing to celebrate and commemorate this time. Some will sponsor lectures or prayer groups. Jubilee doors will be opened and the sacrament of reconciliation will be encouraged. But as Pope Francis reminded us in
Of Other Things
The Mystic from Morningside Heights
t’s hard to imagine a life more beautiful and strange than that of Robert Lax.
Signs Of the Times
News Briefs
The former Creighton University president and former president and publisher of America, John P. Schlegel, S.J., died on Nov. 15 in Omaha, Neb., of pancreatic cancer at the age of 72. • “Time is of the essence” to get humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine as winter sets in, a gr
A Death in Chicago
A funeral service was held at St. Sabina Church on the South Side of Chicago for 9-year-old Tyshawn Lee on Nov. 10. The church is about a mile from where Tyshawn was lured into an alley and shot in the head and the back on the afternoon of Nov. 2. The Rev. Michael Pfleger told…
Pope Calls Paris Attacks ‘Blasphemy’ Says Dialogue Must Continue
Using God’s name to try to justify violence and murder is “blasphemy,” Pope Francis said on Nov. 15, speaking about the terrorist attacks in Paris. “Such barbarity leaves us dismayed and we ask ourselves how the human heart can plan and carry out such horrible events,”
Help for Abuse Victims
The U.S. church still stands ready to help the victims of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic clergy, according to Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau, Alaska, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Child and Youth Protection. “Victims of abuse have helped us see the errors of the p
Could Xi Jingping be Time’s Person of the Year?
You heard it here first: I predict China’s President Xi Jinping will be Time magazine’s Person of the Year.
Deferred Deportation To Supreme Court
The Obama administration will seek a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court after a federal appeals court struck down the president’s program to protect more than four million immigrants from deportation. The ruling on Nov. 9 upheld a Texas-based federal judge’s injunction against President
Breaking Silence on Racism
A “seismic shift in demographics” in both society and the U.S. Catholic Church in the coming decades will create a church that is far less white, the Rev. Bryan Massingale told an audience in New Orleans on Nov. 6. The church will be unprepared to deal with that reality, he continued, un
Vatican Dispatch
A Church of Encounter
Some find Pope Francis’ ecclesiology ‘somewhat threatening.’
Washington Front
An Election Out of Focus
What is missing from this campaign is serious discussion of work, workers and people without work.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts