Simon Leys’s Catholic sensibility is never insistent, and never descends into preachiness. As he said of Confucius, sometimes it can be better to stay silent.
How media shunned Eastern Orthodox leaders visiting refugees with the pope; Which title Francis prefers; Why U.S. bishops fired Catholic News Service editor-in-chief
Reflecting on the two Notre Dame graduations clearly reveals that the latest rounds of the culture wars have sputtered to an end—and that we need a new way forward.
To understand Francis and support the direction he has been setting for the Church, we need to think more deeply about the ways and means of “forgiveness.”
The exhortation is a valiant and powerful exercise in the Petrine ministry of upholding church unity. Is it another starting point in Francis's pontificate?
If John Paul II was the philosopher and Benedict XVI the theologian, Pope Francis is the poet pope, giving voice to the dreams and wisdom of migrants and the poor.
With Pope Francis lifting up what can be called social justice Christianity, clichés that religion lives on the right end of American politics might be overturned.
Remembering responses to the rubella crisis might inform our reactions to Zika. Advocacy for mothers and appreciation for the work of pregnancy should be priorities.
Barry Crimmins is a funny, frightening man. His humor is so sharp it feels almost dangerous to laugh. There’s no telling when it could turn, or in what direction.
An outrage was perpetrated against voters in Arizona, and we can't ignore the warning that the disenfranchisement of thousands of its citizens offers our nation.
What's really at stake in the Friedrichs case is whether the right of workers to organize will be sacrificed to the Court’s contentious views regarding free speech.
Paul Misner's new book goes beyond social and labor movements in the church to deal with papal and episcopal action vis-à-vis the great powers between 1914 and 1965.
A fixation on slashing government spending on services without regard to the effect on the basic well-being of citizens helped bring the Flint crisis about.
The contrast between the response in Europe—reactive, ill-tempered, and chaotic—and that of the countries bordering Syria ought to be a cause of shame.
Like St. Gregory, Bishop Djomo of the Congo is committed to building unity among his own local people—and he lives in a world lacking effective public services.
How to cut through the entitlement or ambivalence of college students and get them to see the connections between economics, ethics, inequality, and oppression?
Andrew Hartman's argument is that while “cultural conflict persists,” it has come to partake of a highly ironic flavor—and continues to ignore economic inequality.
The debates we have witnessed have provided an incontestable answer to the question of which party embraces the United States of Now in all of its raucous diversity.
For the men I met with for a biweekly seminar at a mid-level security prison, the biblical struggle with Satan is an everyday affair, expressed in just those terms.
If we know for a fact more gun restrictions mean fewer gun-related deaths, why are the politics so complicated—even after Sandy Hook, Aurora, and San Bernardino?
People with disabilities present us with a mystery, Jean Vanier once explained; they are the very presence of Jesus. There is something particular in their kindness.
What fascinates Maraniss about Detroit more than its ruin is how central its story is to the broader course of U.S. history—Motown, the local Mob, the auto industry.
'Go Set Watchman' shows that though Atticus Finch defended a black man in court, he was still a man of his time—on the white citizens council, resisting integration.
To understand how Islamic extremism grew, one must consider Washington’s decades-long military support to Pakistan, and its protection of the Saudi Arabian monarchy.
What Pope Francis is doing during his first trip to Africa, despite security threats; who among the cardinals thinks the pope is "wobbly" on church teaching, again.
Selected articles, interviews, and video from our coverage of the Synod on the Family—and the continuing dialogue about sex, marriage, and Catholic family life.
Pope sows "confusion" by inviting Muslims take part in upcoming Jubilee Year, giving a Eucharistic chalice to a Lutheran pastor, and remaining the Bishop of Rome.
Pope Francis to everyone: reread Evangelii Gaudium; to bishops: be pastors, nothing more; to St. Peter's square audience: I need your help in reforming the church.
John Henry Newman once said of the laity that the church would look foolish without them, and from the beginning the synod did indeed look foolish without us.
Paul Ryan has always wanted to be several things at once, which makes for a hard balancing act. He knows his faith teaches compassion, but he's also an ideologue.
Synod Fathers prepare to vote on final document; Pope reminds bishops of Vatican-II hope for episcopal collegiality; More "servant-leader" pastors appointed bishops
John Norris's new biography of Pulitzer prize-winning political journalist (and Commonweal Catholic) Mary McGrory is engaging, carefully researched, and sympathetic.
