George W. Hunt, S.J., editor in chief of America from 1984 to 1998, wrote about some of our nation's most famous authors. But he was a gifted writer himself, as seen in his many Christmas essays for the magazine.

This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria speaks with Binta Niambi Brown, a talent manager in the music and entertainment industry, about the need for Catholics to denounce Kanye West’s anti-Black and antisemitic remarks.

As ever, Stephen Adly Guirgis writes hilarious, profane dialogue and puts his characters in contention over matters both petty and portentous.

Where a lot of Catholic Christmas hymns lean into the more fantastical elements—angels, stars, kings—“In the Bleak Midwinter” points us instead to the ordinary.

“Downstate,” Bruce Norris’s new off-Broadway play about a group home for pedophile, raises the question: Who gets to write about pedophilia? And what are they allowed to say?

Martin McDonagh’s new movie “The Banshees of Inisherin” serves up sad enough stuff to leave viewers crying in our beer. But first we laugh.