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.
History
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.
Posted inFaith, Podcasts
So, why is Rome so important to the Catholic Church?
Why did Peter go to Rome? Is he actually buried under St. Peter’s Basilica? And why has Rome remained the center of the Roman Catholic Church for 2,000 years?
Posted inExplainer, Faith
What Catholics need to know about Kazakhstan before Pope Francis’ visit
Kazakhstan, which Pope Francis will visit tomorrow, is largely an unknown country to many Catholics around the world. Here is a brief introduction to the country and its small Catholic community.
Posted inFaith, Short Take
R.I.P. John W. O’Malley, S.J.: The dean of Catholic historians who helped save Vatican II from ‘oblivion’
A mentor for a generation of scholars of American Catholic history, John W. O’Malley, S.J., died Sept. 11, 2022, at the age of 95.
Posted inFaith, Last Take
In Memoriam: John W. O’Malley, S.J.
James Martin, S.J., offers a personal remembrance of John O’Malley, S.J. the dean of Catholic historians and a mentor to generations of Jesuits, priests, religious men and women and Catholic laypeople.
Posted inExplainer, Faith
Pope John Paul I will be beatified on Sunday. Who was he?
Pope for only 33 days, John Paul I is known both as “The Smiling Pope” and “The Forgotten Pope.” On Sept. 4, he will be beatified. What were his life and papacy like?
Posted inArts & Culture, Theater
The strange, drama-filled trip of Broadway’s ‘Funny Girl’—and what it reveals about live theater
The revival of a 1964 musical is stumbling a bit—but then, the original had its own troubles.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Jesuits pledged $100 million in reparations for sale of enslaved persons. Descendants say progress has been too slow.
Last year, the Jesuits pledged to raise $100 million to support the work of the Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Foundation. Yet, according to Joseph M. Stewart, the president of the foundation, progress has been far too slow.