It took me just over three years to become a Catholic. I came because there was no other place to hold the conversation about why I’m here and what I am to do.
In dealing with bishops who engage in sexual misconduct, the USCCB seems to think that bishops can police themselves, without lay input. We need a better system.
Drawing on the mystery of Christ in the liturgy to nourish one’s own life of faith is not always a self-evident or easy thing to do. We need to become mystagogues.
Pro-life and pro-choice activists have seized on Alabama’s new abortion law to energize their supporters. But abortion demands more than performative politics.
The late Fr. Ted Hesburgh transformed the University of Notre Dame into a leading institution. A new book tendentiously ignores key aspects of his life and work.
Prolifers are supposed to believe that the right choice is not always the apparently expedient one. Their capitulation to Donald Trump damages their credibility.
It will take time and care, but I know Notre-Dame will have its Alleluia moment. I pray there will also be one for the church that inspired its creation.
“Hi, Carlos? This is Msgr. Farrell calling from the bishop’s office with some exciting news. His excellency has decided to elevate you to the clerical state.”
New York State’s new Child Victims Act allows people who were sexually abused in childhood to sue public institutions. What does the law mean for the church?
The whistle-blower in the McCarrick affair narrates the steps he took to report the former cardinal’s abusive behavior, but also the ways in which it was ignored
A primer on New York’s recently enacted Reproductive Health Act, which goes beyond Roe in its insistence on the unlimited right to do with one’s body as one pleases
Claims of Catholic victimhood depart from false premises. Any analysis of racism also needs to account for historic injustices and present power dynamics
The church is hardly a criminal organization, and prosecuting it under the RICO statute doesn’t make sense. Bankruptcy laws, however, offer a better way
The grand-jury report does not substantiate the prevailing script about how bishops let predators get away with committing and recommitting their crimes
We asked you to tell us your stories of why you came, left, or stayed in the church. In this final installment, two readers share their conversion to Catholicism
The twin phenomena of integralism and intransigentism, on the rise among some US Catholics, can actually be construed as ways of leaving Catholicism behind
Greg Burke brought an American way of doing business to a dysfunctional press office. But he quickly grew weary of the Vatican’s culture of caution and cover-up
Pawel provides a sympathetic and affectionate group portrait of the Browns, based on their own letters and diaries as well as testimony of relatives and friends
Scapegoating gay priests and pining for a world in which most Catholics agree with church teaching on birth control is no way to confront the abuse crisis
After reading news of the lawsuits brought against the Diocese of Fairbanks and the Oregon province of the Society of Jesus, I left the church for good.
One thing our contributors agree on is that the question of belonging to the church is not a trivial one; the days of Catholicism by default are behind us
