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.
History
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.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
How does a book reading turn into an attempted murder? The threat against Salman Rushdie has been decades in the making
A violent assault on a famous author revives an ugly history: the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
Look back: America magazine’s love affair with J.F.K.
America’s editors shy away from endorsing political candidates—but J.F.K. proved a hard case, both during his life and in the decades since.
Posted inArts & Culture, Ideas
Interview: To understand world history, study the Jesuits
Markus Friedrich is passionate about Jesuit history—how it is studied, how it should not be studied and about its larger importance today.
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.