Markus Friedrich is passionate about Jesuit history—how it is studied, how it should not be studied and about its larger importance today.
History
Posted inFaith, Last Take
Remembering Vin Scully: Legendary Dodgers announcer, occasional philosopher and devout Catholic
Where have you gone, Vin Scully? A nation turns its lonely ear to you.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Joan Didion, Wendell Berry, Sally Rooney: Summer review for the Catholic Book Club
A very sunburned literary editor looks back on some Catholic Book Club columns of yore.
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1981: John Kennedy Toole and the myth of fame
This story has no moral, only a great joy for Mrs. Toole, and a great sadness.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: The history of Yellowstone, our greatest national park
Readable, well researched and carefully documented, ‘Saving Yellowstone’ does not get bogged down in minutiae in its history of the park.
Posted inFaith, Faith and Reason
How popes became so powerful—and how Pope Francis could reverse the trend
The papalization of the church reached its most robust form in the first half of the 20th century, but it might be seeing its twilight under Pope Francis.
Posted inArt, Arts & Culture
The ‘Hot Holy Ladies’ who fought for the faith — and the Jesuits — in Reformation England
A new exhibit at Stonyhurst College is a powerful testament to the role women played in maintaining the faith through dark times.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Fintan O’Toole’s personal history of Ireland traces the fall of Catholicism and rise of capitalism on the Emerald Isle
Fintan O’Toole reflects on the last 64 years in Ireland—a time when Irish life was almost completely transformed.
Posted inArts & Culture, Vantage Point
From 1992: Fay Vincent on his ouster as MLB commissioner
When Fay Vincent Jr. resigned as commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1992 after a majority of Major League Baseball owners issued a vote of “no confidence” and called for him to step down, he chose America and his friend George W. Hunt, S.J., as the primary venue for his thoughts on the matter.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Mike Davis, Los Angeles and the sins of capitalism
For more than three decades, Mike Davis has offered clear and often stinging counterpoints to the prevailing vision of the “California Dream.”