The Highest Boughs
The gleams of rain that pool in withered leaves; The blackened lump of stone amid the ashes.
Review: Memory-keepers, death and grief in ‘Brother Epistles’
We think of letters as a two-way form of communication: They go to and fro in the world, from one writer to the reader, who becomes the writer of the next letter. But sometimes we write letters that are not returned in a traditional way. In Brother Epistles: A Sister’s Memoir, Shanda McManus does just…
Review: Rebecca Gayle Howell revisits the Book of Genesis
Rebecca Gayle Howell’s project in ‘Erase Gensis’ seems to exist in the tradition of midrash—the shaping of Scripture in light of contemporary concerns and creative interpretation.
Review: Life and taxes in Ray Madoff’s ‘The Second Estate’
How do taxation and democracy rely on and mutually support each other? In her new book ‘The Second Estate,’ Ray D. Madoff tackles this and other thorny questions around taxes and the way we pay them (or don’t).
Sigrid Undset: Scholar, storyteller—and future saint?
Sigrid Undset’s writings were admired by everyone from Willa Cather to Dorothy Day. Her life is being studied by the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Who was this Norwegian teller of truths?
Our readers: What would Fulton Sheen make of modern politics?
“Sheen was a rock star who made being Catholic singular. No one lifted me up as much as Fulton during my teens.”
Enough books to fill the entire world
Can we afford to stop reading when our sacred texts seem at times like the only thing we share?
The U.S. bishops are speaking out forcefully on politics—and finally being heard
Prompted by the beginnings of both Leo XIV’s papacy and the second term of Donald J. Trump, the bishops are using their voice in a new way.
A way out of the Vatican II liturgy wars: Priests should stick to the rubrics
Priests who depart from the rubrics of the Mass may mean well. But Catholics should consider why both Popes Leo and Francis have called such deviations a problem.
Jesuits, Mohawks and Puritans meet in Molly McNett’s historical fiction
The deeply researched ‘Child of These Tears’ captures the profound humanness of Jesuit missionaries in colonial North America.
How one Little League umpire cultivates faith on the field
Amid the pressure-packed culture of competition in youth sports, my Catholic faith helps me to be humble, forgiving and joyful.
Two books on Pope Leo paint a picture of a potentially transformative leader
With experience at every level of church governance and familiarity with how to build and use power, Leo XIV has the potential to be profoundly consequential.
What Christians lose when we stop reading
What happens to the church when the people of the book no longer choose to read? We ignore this question at our own peril.
Socialism is back in style. Is today’s version compatible with Catholic social teaching?
The problem for Dorothy Day, and the Catholic Church, was socialism’s focus on class conflict at the expense of the concrete love of individuals.
Pope Leo calls on priests to ‘respect’ the post-Vatican II liturgies in new letter
Pope Leo’s letter to Cardinal Roche is the latest in a series of moves he has made this summer to affirm the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.
Moderates and liberals stopped going to church. We’re only beginning to see the effects.
In ‘The Vanishing Church,’ Ryan Burge presents a data-driven picture of how the American religious and political landscapes have transformed together over the past 50 years.
Inside the U.S. bishops’ plan for Hispanic ministry in the era of mass deportations
Immigrant accompaniment is just one of the priorities the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops set for Hispanic ministry in 2026.
U.S. Catholics, from bishops to lay advocates, scramble to help Haitian community as ICE prepares for deportations
In Miami, which hosts the largest Haitian community in the country, Archbishop Wenski described Haitian residents as “very tense, very nervous” as they await whatever comes next.
Paragraph 176 of ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ and Pope Leo XIV’s apology for the enslavement of African people
“Pope Leo’s formal apology and plea for forgiveness is long overdue,” Bishop Edward Braxton writes. Is it too late for the pope’s words to have an impact?
Catholic schools and childhood vaccines: A showdown between Florida’s attorney general and bishops
A showdown over vaccines between Catholic school officials in Florida and the state’s attorney general this week revived debate over the morality and efficacy of vaccinations.
Poetry
In Times That Trouble
Though riverbeds might buckle, breaching wide, I will not murmur. No, I will hold true.
Faith
In the footsteps of St. Francis: How my travels through Italy brought me closer to a beloved saint
All of life was a pilgrimage for St. Francis of Assisi. It only made sense, 800 years after his death, that I would go on my own pilgrimage in search of him.
Priests are wearing cassocks again. Should you care?
Who is letting other people’s clothing choice get so deeply under their skin? You? People you know? This author?
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