Reading a Marilynne Robinson novel is like going to church. Her books put us into conversation with the Bible, “a great ancient literature” (her words) whose powerful stories reveal their meanings gradually in multiple and ongoing ways. They posit a community of people who take their fai
What is the appropriate age for Catholic children baptized in infancy to celebrate confirmation? It might seem a relatively minor issue. Yet I believe the great efforts the U.S. Catholic Church has put into the new evangelization, its mission to “invite each Catholic to renew their relationshi
It is 5:30 a.m., June 1995, as the rising sun breaks into my little backstreet hotel room in Hanoi, and the light trampling of hundreds of feet padding past my window shakes me out of bed and into my shorts and sneakers to join the multitude of morning runners. The mass is heading toward West Lake,
From the wreckage of Britain’s broken dreams, the U.S. plucked the mantle of global leadership
A Royal PriesthoodThe editors suggest all good things in “A Space for Women” (3/30), and I especially concur with Gudrun Sailer that the solution is not merely replicating secular structures. The problem of women’s roles in the church is a problem of an inadequate theology of
It has been very discouraging to watch the acrimonious debate over religious liberty in Indiana and Arkansas. The passage of a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in these states sparked widespread protests over possible discrimination and exposed a deep divide in our nation on questions of marriage,
