Bishop John Cummins had a significant and lasting impact on the Catholic Church in his own diocese and elsewhere through his quiet leadership and ministry. He was a reminder to many of what Pope Francis meant when he called for bishops who are “pastors, not princes.”
Books
Posted inFaith, Features
An atheist’s return to the Catholic Church: a story of death, love and meaning
From Nietzsche and Heidegger to Charles Taylor, Dostoevsky and the Gospels, one believer’s journey to faith.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
John Banville: notorious literary esthete—and crime novelist
John Banville is surely the only crime novelist in recent memory who has won the Booker Prize and is regularly rumored to be in the running for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
Review: ‘Wicked’ challenges what we think about good and evil
“Wicked” arrives on a whirlwind of eager (and anxious) anticipation among fans of the musical.
Posted inFaith, Interviews
Q&A: ‘Wicked’ author Gregory Maguire on his Catholic faith, souls, saints and religion in Oz
“Wicked” author Gregory Maguire talks about his religious upbringing, Elphaba’s search for a soul and why nuns, saints and witches might not be all that different.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Doris Grumbach, L.G.B.T. pioneer and fearless literary critic
Doris Grumbach was an accomplished novelist, literary critic, biographer and memoirist and an early pioneer for her books exploring L.G.B.T. themes. She was also a longtime book reviewer and essayist for ‘America.’
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
Doris Grumbach on the art of the book review
In 1960, novelist and literary critic Doris Grumbach reflected on the art—and science—of book reviewing, including Catholic books.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Poetry of the seeking soul
A tourist who is out of time approaches the end of his or her trip and must return home soon. This is how the Rev. David May describes himself through his poems.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The end of neoliberalism
In ‘Tyranny, Inc.,’ Sohrab Ahmari supplies a framework and examples of what has shaped the desperate plight of a growing number of Americans.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Julia Alvarez riffs on ‘Arabian Nights’
‘The Cemetery of Untold Stories’ reads like a novel made up of all the stories that Julia Alvarez no longer wants to carry in bits and pieces in her head,. And Alvarez knows that we all are—and need to be—story creatures.