In the August 13-20 edition of America, Father Andrew Greeley writes about American Catholics Today, a recent sociological study that seeks to gauge what elements of Catholicism are most important to people in the pews. For more than three quarters of respondents, helping the poor, the Resurrection, the sacraments and Mary were very important. At the bottom of the list were abortion, teaching authority, death penalty and celibate male clergy, Father Greeley writes. He agreed to discuss his article with America by email.

What does this study say about what you have called the "Catholic imagination?

From 2006, a survey of the complicated political picture in Venezuela, Nicaragua and elsewhere

The most obvious lesson of the 2006 elections, in which the Democratic Party became the majority party in both houses of Congress, is that the election was a referendum on the leadership of President George W. Bush. The president was quick to accept the verdict of the voters, announcing the followin

For me, a Catholic bishop, the past four years have been Dickensian—the best of times and the worst of times. How they have been the worst of times hardly needs explanation, but the growing realization that they have also been the best of times has come to me as an ever-deepening conviction an

In Running Alone the distinguished Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McGregor Burns tracks almost a half-century of what he considers critically flawed American presidential leadership His starting point is John F Kennedy rsquo s success in the 1960 election in which he ran his campaign wit

As we approach the November midterm Congressional elections, most of official Washington has gone into recess. In the final weeks of campaigning, both the White House and the Congress have turned their attention from policy to politics. Those who take an idealistic view of the democratic process mig

Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II convened what has become one of the more significant symbolic and substantive events of his eventful pontificate. On Oct. 26, 1986, the participants in the World Day of Prayer for Peace gathered under an overcast and sometimes rainy sky in Assisi, Italy, “to

I come before you as a pastor who cares deeply about your work as Catholic legislators. We do not always agree. I have tried to be a clear teacher and a decent pastor here in our nation’s capital. I offer some brief reflections that may nourish and challenge you in your vital responsibilities.

McCarrick Warns Against Partisanship in ChurchCardinal Theodore E. McCarrick sharply warned the U.S. bishops on June 15 that "the intense polarization and bitter battles of partisan politics may be seeping into [the] broader ecclesial life of our Catholic people and maybe even of our [bishops&r

Last week, over our Wednesday morning cup of coffee, a conservative Christian friend smiled as she told me I am the most conservative liberal she has ever met! There was a time when this would have brought anything but a smile to my face. But that day, I laughed out loud. I thanked her for recognizing in me a hard-fought battle that has landed me smack dab in the middle of the road.