Can Pokémon Go really help bring people to the pews?
It is a good idea to share the love when someone new comes along, even if they are looking for the Poliwag, the Poliwhirl and the Poliwrath rather than the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
How protest tries to put the world back together—and why it matters for Catholics.
The re-enchantment of the world may never be global, but perhaps it can be Catholic.
Of Many Things
The new National Museum of African American History opens with a bell rung in unity.
In spite of our common progress, the country is still beset by the consequences of our original sin: lingering racial prejudice and outright bias, and deep distrust between Americans of different races and between large swaths of our citizenry and those charged with protecting and serving them.
Letters
Reply All
Asylum versus ImmigrationRe “Step Up on Syrian Refugees” (Current Comment, 9/19): The editors’ comment on the Syrian refugee issue is certainly needed and welcome, but America continues to miss the important distinction between asylum and immigration. Thus the statement that &
Editorials
Why fighting for religious liberty should not become a culture war.
For generations, the church has provided support for millions of Americans, regardless of religion.
Books
Bobby Kennedy, a politician unafraid of love
Catholics with their “sacramental imagination” might make sense of what this man meant to some of his contemporaries.
Have you heard of “the Boys” from Henry’s Turkey Service?
‘The Boys in the Bunkhouse’ is a gentle though ultimately damning exposé.
John McGreevy’s ‘American Jesuits and the World’ tells of the Jesuit contribution to global Catholicism
Of the six jurisdictions that constituted the Society of Jesus in the United States in 1900, five of them owed their origin to Jesuit immigrants of the mid-to-late 19th century.
‘American Amnesia’ describes the forgotten success of the mid-20th C. American economy. Lance Compa reviews.
Candidates will have to combine American Amnesia’s policy prescriptions with a broader call to Americans’ better angels. Otherwise, Hacker and Pierson’s next book might well be titled American Dementia.
Moody’s third volume of “Ezra Pound: Poet” delves into the poet’s fascist tendencies. James T. Keane reviews.
“We are more comfortable with Ezra Pound the madman, because we do not want to ponder Pound the monster.”
Film
The new Snowden movie is so bad it almost makes you forget how serious privacy issues are
For all Stone’s posturing as a filmmaking maverick, “Snowden” relies on every manner of movie convention and emotional shortcut.
Poetry
Autumn Day
Lord: it is time. Bright summer fades away.Let sundials darken as your shadows grow.Set loose your winds across the open fields. Let the last fruit still ripen on the vine,And give the grapes a few more southern daysTo warm them to perfection, and then pressTheir earthy sweetness into hea
The Word
The spiritual contest demands that we keep fighting and not give up.
To draw sustenance, we must continue to go to the sources that refresh us: friends, prayer, the sacraments, the Mass and Scripture, all of which equip us for the spiritual battle, and to recognize that God is always with us too, truly fighting at our side.
Current Comment
It turns out Michelle Obama was right about America’s obesity problem
The first lady’s concerns are not misplaced.
¡Adíos Adolfo! 30th Superior General of the Jesuits steps down.
The Society of Jesus owes Father Nicolás a great debt of gratitude for his careful leadership.
Why aren’t we talking more about our housing shortage?
There is not enough housing where it would do the most good.
Faith
The spiritual contest demands that we keep fighting and not give up.
To draw sustenance, we must continue to go to the sources that refresh us: friends, prayer, the sacraments, the Mass and Scripture, all of which equip us for the spiritual battle, and to recognize that God is always with us too, truly fighting at our side.
Of Other Things
Welcome to the Boogie Down: A review of Netflix’s “The Get Down”
if you’ve ever wondered about the origins of hip-hop and the Bronx, “The Get Down” is a great starting point.
Signs Of the Times
News Briefs
The Nigerian government reported on Sept. 22 that President Muhammadu Buhari is seeking U.N. assistance in negotiations to exchange the kidnapped schoolgirls from Chibok for captured leaders of Boko Haram. • Catholic Extension officials announced on Sept. 19 that Melva Arbelo, director of the S
U.N. Summit Seeks New Strategy On Global Migration Crisis
High on the agenda for the September meeting of the U.N. General Assembly was the revision and reinvigoration of the global community’s approach to the treatment of displaced people and refugees. The global community has attempted, by fits and starts, to deal with an unprecedented humanitarian
Three Priests Killed Over Two Days
A missing priest was found shot dead off the side of a highway in western Mexico days after he was kidnapped from his parish residence, state prosecutors said on Sept. 25. He was the third Roman Catholic priest to be slain in Mexico in the last week.The Michoacan state Attorney General's Office
Saving Christians
Speakers addressing the Helsinki Commission, a Congressional advisory group that monitors global human rights conditions, on Sept. 22 called upon the United States to step up efforts to provide financial support to nongovernmental organizations that serve thousands of displaced people in northern Ir
Demand for Justice
Building on the one-year anniversary of Pope Francis’s historic address to Congress last September, over 120 alumni of Jesuit law schools delivered a letter on Sept. 21 to Congressional leadership and the offices of Jesuit-educated members of Congress, calling for passage of bipartisan crimina
Clashing Theologians
In August, the Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research, based in the United Kingdom, published a report in anticipation of the 50th anniversary of “Humanae Vitae,” the papal encyclical that upheld the ban on the use of contraceptives. The statement, signed by more than 150 Catholic sc
Illinois can’t pass a budget and it’s hurting those who need the most help.
The Illinois budget battle raises broader questions about whether the state has a moral obligation to care for its citizens in need.
Washington Front
In confronting its history with slavery, Georgetown University offers a model for moral leadership.
In searching for leadership, I have found it not on the campaign trail but, ironically, one floor away from my office.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts