Catholic chaplains fighting a different battle in World War I: the fight against Spanish influenza
History
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: How the fall of Rome led to the modern world
Walter Scheidel argues in “Escape From Rome: The Failure of Empire and the Road to Prosperity,” that out of the Roman Empire’s ashes rose modernity.
Posted inFaith, Interviews
What we can learn from the women deacons of the early Eastern Christian church
The Very Rev. Mark Morozowich on the role of women deacons in the early Eastern church and how historical theology shapes our discussion on the question of women deacons now.
Posted inArts & Culture, Culture
The story behind the lost neighborhood where ‘West Side Story’ is set
The setting of “West Side Story” is San Juan Hill, the nickname of the Lincoln Square area of Upper West Side of Manhattan—an area bulldozed and redeveloped into the Lincoln Center performing arts complex in the early 1960s.
Posted inFaith, News
Vatican sees intense interest in opening of Pius XII archive
Some Jewish groups and historians have said Pius, who was pope from 1939-1958, stayed silent during the Holocaust and didn’t do enough to save lives.
Posted inArts & Culture, Catholic Book Club
There’s something about Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene’s actual history, as Margaret Arnold tells us, is much richer than we think. The tradition’s appropriation of Mary Magdalene is much more intricate and complex—as the saint herself is complex.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A wild war between zoos
J. W. Mohnhaupt’s first book, The Zookeepers’ War, is an earnest plunge into the extraordinary history behind Berlin’s competing zoos during the Cold War.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
My black Catholic church was closed in the name of integration
I still feel the pain of what occurred more than 50 years ago, but the church—our church—has asked for forgiveness. I will give it another chance.
Posted inFaith, Jesuitical
The importance of learning the stories of the enslaved people owned by the Jesuits
There is still much that remains unknown about the enslaved people owned, rented and borrowed by the Catholic Church.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: A pilgrim in search of grace
In her fourth book, The Virgin of Prince Street: Expeditions Into Devotion, Sonja Livingston introduces herself as a “pilgrimess” returning to her childhood church in Rochester, N.Y., after not regularly attending Mass for 20 years.