With “Cowboy Carter,” her eighth studio album, Beyoncé not only explores the longed-for and carelessly and/or intentionally erased Black past in country music, but also moves the genre forward into a hopefully more expansive future.

It is necessary that we grapple with hard facts, even if it means wearing scars. But let us not yield when confronted with the racism, sexism or other sins of any saint.

Langston Hughes, the great Black poet, playwright, journalist and author, had a nuanced and not easily categorized religious life.

Men's college basketball's finest squad did not come from one of the N.C.A.A. powerhouses of the past three decades, but from the University of San Francisco, where Bill Russell led the team to consecutive national championships in 1955 and 1956.

George Dunne, S.J., never backed down from a fight or a perceived injustice in a long career as a priest, academic and activist.

In 'Katherine Drexel and the Sisters Who Shared Her Vision,' the historian Margaret McGuinness has performed another valuable service to American Catholic history.