Alice McDermott's new novel will provoke contemplation and prayer. It is a Catholic book, and it will seep into you like indigo into a clean, pure bolt of cloth.

After a visit to Christ in the Desert, I knew it was not the monks whose lifestyle I should question.

No part of the 220-year-old mission, part of the Franciscan Province of St. Barbara, was damaged, said Brother John Kiesler.

Set in the early ’60s, “Novitiate” is yet another tale of the trauma suffered by the religious and their orders in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.

The Vincentian family was founded 400 years ago.

A chainsaw-wielding sister is just the latest viral sensation.