Category: Essays & Profiles
A Microcosm of Covid-19’s Impact on America’s Poorest by Jamie Manson
This pandemic has laid bare the shocking inferiorities of so many systems in our country: the fragility of our social safety net, our gutted public health system, our stark economic inequalities that are often the result of systemic racism and xenophobia.
The Harmonious Center By Ciro Festa
Lessons from Dante Alighieri on how we can seek moderation and balance in a time of fearful uncertainty.
“He Is Not Here, for He Is Risen”: Thoughts on the Current Pandemic in the Light of Easter by Jordan M. Miller
Images on a screen, the sound of a voice digitized in one place and re-constituted somewhere else, can never pretend to replace the human person, standing there, alive.
Camus’s The Plague and Our Coronavirus by Patrick Henry
What brings us back to Camus’s novel during our current pandemic is the simple, ordinary morality that he delineates throughout the text. There is no heroism here, just ordinary people behaving in a decent manner.
The Sacrament of Personal Responsibility by Ed Burns
Maybe the issue of living out our Christian lives is not the matter of having power and control over the events of our lives and our institutions. Maybe the issue is rather the matter of having fidelity to our convictions, and a willingness to assume personal responsibility for living out these convictions.
Editorial: Extending the Boundaries: Tomáš Halík and the Post-Covid Church
Tomáš Halík imagines a future for the church on the other side of Covid-19—a future that is not built on unattainable ideals, but that rises out of the real needs of people confronting a dramatic irruption.
Women and Power in Catholic Ministry by John Wijngaards
In a church context, the supreme power of love is Christ’s power brought to us through the eucharist and the other sacraments. May we deny people that power because ancient prejudice judged women unfit to channel it?
The Nun Who Stopped Riots on the Streets of Belfast by Michael Ford
A profile of a tireless peacemaker. “I would like to be on the same wavelength with everybody, finding unity with every human being and, above all, unity with God.”
Faith in a Time of Chaos by Deacon Thom Crowe
Practical wisdom for ways to grow in faith during this global pandemic.
God, Adam, Eve, and Us by Fr. Bob Bonnot
The Speaker needs the articulation provided by Word, and the Word needs the energy of the Wind to become real, embodied, incarnate. That energy is Love.
People-Watching on the Bus: A Report from Hawaii by Gene Ciarlo
A dispatch from the "fantastic study in human diversity" that is Honolulu, Hawaii.
Editorial: Our Collective Fragility
However we choose to modify our behavior in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, it will be rooted in a new understanding of our interdependence.
A Plea for Priority: The Crisis of Climate Change by Jane M. Bailey
The Association of US Catholic Priests, the Catholic Climate Initiative, and numerous other groups are leading the response to the climate crisis. Here is what you can do to help.
Divine Maternal Power by Christine Schenk
People who live close to the earth have much to teach us about living in harmony with a fractured world beloved by God, who in Pope John Paul I’s words is “our father; even more he is our mother.”