Of Many Things
Camus, community and coronavirus: What I’ve learned from self-quarantine
I am writing this column from my bedroom in New York on the seventh day of my self-quarantine. Last month I had the honor to co-lead America Media’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Father James Martin.
Your Take
Does your workplace support your religious practice?
America asked our readers: Does your workplace support your religious practice?
Editorials
New Catholics are a sign of hope
On Holy Saturday, thousands of catechumens and candidates in the United States will join the Catholic Church.
The Editors: How Catholics should respond to the coronavirus
The coronavirus poses a threat that knows no borders. As Catholics, neither does our love and concern for our neighbors.
Short Take
For Lent, let’s give up a treat that exploits child labor
The production of chocolate still depends on millions of child laborers in Africa, writes Christie Klimas. Fortunately, both popular and premium brands are moving toward justice for cocoa farmers.
Dispatches
Fear and uncertainty haunt Mexico’s monarch butterfly reserve after activists’ murder
A shadow hangs over El Rosario where each year millions of monarch butterflies alight on the reserve’s fir trees. Two local protectors of Mexico’s monarch preserve have been killed, and so far, no one can say what happened to them.
What the church in Africa is doing to combat coronavirus
The Lenten season has begun, and more Nigerians are likely to attend religious gatherings. To stall a possible outbreak, however, Archbishop Alfred Martins of the Archdiocese of Lagos said contact should be restricted.
How Iran-backed fighters are making life hell for Iraq’s Christians
With the liberation of parts of Iraq from ISIS in 2017, Iraq’s Christians returned home to two unwelcome developments. Their homes had been burned, looted or destroyed by ISIS and Iran-backed groups who helped defeat ISIS—known as Popular Mobilization Forces—now controlled their towns.
After student protest, Creighton University endorses plan to begin divestment from fossil fuels
Last November, 85.8 percent of voting students—2,438 in total—supported a nonbinding referendum that urged university trustees to sell off the then-10.6 percent of the university endowment that was invested in fossil fuel corporations by 2025.
Features
Should colleges pay their athletes? What Catholic social teaching has to say.
A changing legal landscape in college sports has renewed the discussion of what is “fair” for college athletes when it comes to compensation.
The story of my life as a Jesuit priest in 5 Masses over 50 years
A life in the Society of Jesus.
Faith and Reason
How the Jesuits helped to bring Latin to Russia
Seeing the proselytizing success of the Jesuits in Eastern Europe, some Orthodox clerics decided to defend their expression of the faith using the very tools that were challenging it.
Faith in Focus
Money has warped youth sports. Ignatian spirituality offers a better way to play.
St. Ignatius invites us to discern spiritual meaning in everyday experience. I have found that such discoveries occur frequently on the basketball court.
A Coronavirus Prayer
Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages “curing every disease and illness.” Come to our aid now, that we may experience your healing love.
Ideas
Gen-X women can’t ‘have it all’ after all
Generation X came of age in a culture awash in dreams of women’s perpetual and idealized childhood being sold as feminist empowerment.
Books
Review: Geological virtues
Marcia Bjornerud takes the reader on a tour de force of geology that explains how the contemporary earth sciences help with what religiously inclined readers might call the task of theological anthropology: a consideration of the world beyond humans, the world with humans, and the forces far beyond that shape us all.
Review: Exploring the radical politics of Los Angeles in the 1960’s
The new book by the historians Mike Davis and Jon Wiener takes readers on a picaresque voyage around Los Angeles during the “long sixties” (1960-1973).
Mining the partnership between science and religion
The book is characteristically careful, methodical and precise—hallmarks of Haight’s writing style and theological methodology. Readers familiar with the development of Catholic theologies of nature and creation will find much to converse with here, as will philosophical theologians.
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.
Review: How should Christians address anti-Semitism in their communities?
This book is meant to arouse Christians, both their pastors and congregations, to the agonies and injustices perpetrated against Jews in the past and presen
Film
‘Corpus Christi’ review: A thrilling allegory of faith
“Corpus Christi” is not a critique of Catholicism, though; it may not even be a deliberately Catholic film, writes film critic John Anderson.
Television
Saying goodbye to ‘BoJack Horseman’
The final season of “BoJack Horseman” gives many of its characters endings about as happy as they can manage.
Poetry
Passion Play
I decide on wide slashes—precise but hungry,/as if the soldier had wanted to peel into the heart—
The Word
Are we present for Jesus during his time of need?
Who might we be in these narratives? Who was there during Jesus’ time of need?
Can we believe in the Resurrection without understanding it?
What might be difficult to understand on Easter Sunday should become clearer throughout the Easter season.
Last Take
What does it mean to be a Catholic mother today?
Motherhood was an all-encompassing thing, and yet also a hidden thing, Danielle Bean writes.
Faith
How the Jesuits helped to bring Latin to Russia
Seeing the proselytizing success of the Jesuits in Eastern Europe, some Orthodox clerics decided to defend their expression of the faith using the very tools that were challenging it.
Are we present for Jesus during his time of need?
Who might we be in these narratives? Who was there during Jesus’ time of need?
Can we believe in the Resurrection without understanding it?
What might be difficult to understand on Easter Sunday should become clearer throughout the Easter season.
Money has warped youth sports. Ignatian spirituality offers a better way to play.
St. Ignatius invites us to discern spiritual meaning in everyday experience. I have found that such discoveries occur frequently on the basketball court.
New Catholics are a sign of hope
On Holy Saturday, thousands of catechumens and candidates in the United States will join the Catholic Church.
What does it mean to be a Catholic mother today?
Motherhood was an all-encompassing thing, and yet also a hidden thing, Danielle Bean writes.
Does your workplace support your religious practice?
America asked our readers: Does your workplace support your religious practice?
The story of my life as a Jesuit priest in 5 Masses over 50 years
A life in the Society of Jesus.
Camus, community and coronavirus: What I’ve learned from self-quarantine
I am writing this column from my bedroom in New York on the seventh day of my self-quarantine. Last month I had the honor to co-lead America Media’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land with Father James Martin.
A Coronavirus Prayer
Jesus Christ, you traveled through towns and villages “curing every disease and illness.” Come to our aid now, that we may experience your healing love.
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts