During the Reformation, Catholic vestments were targeted for destruction. At the end of the 16th century, only one of these Henry VII copes was left: the one on display today.
History
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
When the (books about) saints go marching in
All Saints Day is a day to venerate holy men and women—and also to recognize the saints in our midst, complicated though they might be.
Posted inPodcasts, Politics & Society
Podcast: An honest look at slavery in the Christian tradition
This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria interviews Chris Kellerman, S.J., about his new book, ‘All Oppression Shall Cease: A History of Slavery, Abolitionism and The Catholic Church.’
Posted inDispatches, Faith
In Salem, the witch trials are gone—but the tourists aren’t. Here’s how a local Catholic priest welcomes them.
How does a Catholic priest minister in a town famous for its devotion to the occult? Well, first you try to be a good neighbor.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
The final secret of the Vatican’s Jesuit saint maker
Peter Gumpel, S.J., who died last week, devoted his life to the work of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He also had a surprising secret about his own background.
Posted inFaith, Vantage Point
From 1962: America’s editors on the Cuban Missile Crisis
After a tense standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States over the presence of Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, the editors of America weigh the outcome and the consequences.
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
Broadway’s ‘1776’ revival casts women and non-binary actors as founding fathers. Can it succeed in the shadow of ‘Hamilton’?
While Lin-Manuel Miranda’s popular Founding Fathers remix was built for performers of color, “1776” has been retrofitted onto this troupe of talented women.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Papal infallibility is often misunderstood. Here’s what it means—and what it doesn’t.
Papal infallibility is not always properly understood. Some on the right think that the magisterium can resolve every question or problem with a declaration. Those on the left often grow impatient and dispute its interventions.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
The Catholic Church has been banning books for centuries. Here’s what it can teach us about censorship today.
Groups calling for the removal of books from libraries and school curricula today would do well to consider the Catholic Church’s experiences with attempting to censor authors.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Unveiling the history of Black Catholic nuns: Shannen Dee Williams’s ‘Subversive Habits’
Shannen Dee Williams’s ‘Subversive Habits’ uncovers—with authoritative, painstaking scholarship—a great deal of what was hidden and some of what has been erased concerning white supremacy in the Roman Catholic Church.