Few people might have noticed it, but Network, a Catholic social justice lobby, conducted a series of rural roundtables in 2018 and 2019 to take the pulse of Americans living in the heartland.
Rural issues
Posted inEditorials, Politics & Society
Take me out to the (minor league) ballgame
Taking away access to minor-league baseball for many Americans is against our national interest and our longstanding culture.
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
Review: Elizabeth Strout brings us back into the life of Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout examines the human condition in a quiet setting where introspection cannot be escaped.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
The Midwest is underwater. Here’s why we should care.
This spring’s floods devastated farming and rural communities in the middle of the U.S. that were already struggling with economic and social decline, writes Nathan Beacom. But ”blue” America may find it difficult to sympathize.
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
U.S. health care is in crisis. Here’s how the Catholic Church continues to reach the marginalized.
Income is perhaps the unifying indicator of health care in crisis across all the margins of America—a reliable predictor of poor health outcomes from inadequate treatment for common illnesses—leading to the final measure of all: substantially lower life expectancy.
Posted inDispatches, Faith
One-third of Canada’s churches could close within 10 years
According to the National Trust for Canada, close to 9,000 churches could be closed within the next decade, citing the fact that they are becoming “surplus to the needs of society.”
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
A 50-year farm bill can break our wasteful patterns of production and consumption
The latest five-year farm bill continues a pattern of subsidizing corporations while squeezing every last drop of use out of farm families and cropland.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Faith advocates see victories in new farm bill
The farm bill that passed both houses of Congress by wide margins doesn’t have money in it to protect endangered species, but it did preserve one that had been on the threatened list: bipartisanship.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Folks in rural part of Panhandle ask: Where’s the help?
“It’s a struggle. You feel frustrated because our local government seems to care more about the tourism industry than the hard-working people.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Scientists, farmers, and theologians agree: Agriculture is a ‘noble vocation’
Ministering in rural areas should be rooted in building relationships that understand people’s connection to their land.