Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan reviews Msgr. Thomas Shelley’s ‘John Tracy Ellis: An American Catholic Reformer,’ calling it “a well-documented yet very readable biography of the ‘dean’ of American Catholic history.”
History
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Teilhard de Chardin, racism and eugenics: An exchange
Was Teilhard de Chardin a promoter of eugenics? Two scholars debate the question.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
The America editor who ruined nuclear fallout shelters forever
Why don’t we have fallout shelters anymore? It’s a long story, but an editor at America had something to do with it.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A history of books dating back to antiquity
Irene Vallejo’s history of books found an audience outside of the academy because it speaks to present concerns and speaks on behalf of many book readers.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
Reject the cult of ‘intelligence.’ You’re worth more than that.
Any science that seeks to measure our worth by measuring one trait or another is science gone wrong.
Posted inFaith, News
Holy Smoke: A history of tobacco and the Catholic Church
The Catholic Church played a major role in bringing tobacco to Italy, which is still the number one producer of raw tobacco in the European Union today.
Posted inFaith, The Good Word
Why history still matters in heaven
When Christ entered heaven, he took something with him: a human nature forged by the story of our striving and suffering. When Christ became man, God entered human history. When Christ returned to his Father, human history entered God.
Posted inFaith, Vantage Point
From 1986: What Christians can learn from the Hindu mystic Ramakrishna
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., offers reflections in this 1986 article on the life and message of Sri Ramakrishna on the 150th anniversary of his birth (February 18) and the 100th anniversary of his death (August 15).
Posted inFaith, Vantage Point
From 1953: The British coronation rite is essentially Catholic
The coronation of a British monarch is a ceremony that at several points bears a marked resemblance to the consecration of a bishop and which, in its essence and most of its origins, is essentially Catholic.
Posted inFaith in Focus, Politics & Society
I was at the first Earth Day. And I carry what I learned about care for creation to this day.
The first Earth Day aligned people of all political stripes and cultural backgrounds, because who wouldn’t want to conserve the environment and stop air pollution?