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.
History
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.
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.