The Catholic Church is not a faction of the Republican Party—and Democrats are not the only ones who sometimes view the defense of religious freedom as a pothole instead of a stop sign.
Catholic Social Teaching
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Faith and activism in the City of Angels
‘City of Dignity,’ by Sean T. Dempsey, S.J., tells a story of how progressive religious leaders, organizations and institutions worked to shape Los Angeles into a city where dignity flourished through their grassroots organizing and activism in the decades after World War II until the mid-1990s.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
How neighbors going door-to-door cut crime in a Louisiana city
What did four Shreveport neighborhoods with plunging crime rates have in common? They had Friendship Houses, opened and operated by Community Renewal International.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
My sister, daughter and the new Barbie all have Down syndrome—here’s how the new doll helps us emulate how Jesus lived
My sister, who has Down syndrome, never had dolls that looked like her growing up. Today, my kids can play with a Barbie who has Down syndrome, which allows all children to welcome people with disabilities.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
When your car causes you to sin: Driving does not encourage us to be our best selves
When we get behind the wheel, it is easy to see other human beings as mere obstacles. We need to acknowledge that driving can distort the moral sense of Catholics and all good people.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
I’m a priest and Writers Guild member. Here’s why Catholics should support the writers strike.
I would like to offer three anecdotes from my life that I hope will speak to what the Writers Guild of America is fighting for and why Catholics should care.
Posted inNews Analysis, Politics & Society
Silicon Valley Bank, Catholic social teaching and libertarian hypocrisy
Catholic social teaching has always acknowledged a role for government regulation of the economy. The economy is to promote the common good, not benefit owners and investors alone.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Joe Biden’s immigration policy shift is against Catholic teaching
President Biden said the right things during the 2020 campaign, but his immigration policy is beginning to resemble that of Donald Trump.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
Pope Francis, not Adam Smith, is right: A belated apology to my Econ 101 students
I introduced students to a worldview completely at odds with the one expressed by Pope Francis. In doing so, I rationalized greed and dismissed the idea of a common good.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Pope Francis asks theologians to remember the marginalized. Here’s how one global project is responding.
In 2021 the Vatican launched a unique global theology project: Doing Theology from the Existential Peripheries. What can we learn from those interviewed?