Category: Essays & Profiles
An Encounter with Dorothy Day by Douglas Lavine
An author's recollection of his meeting with Dorothy Day in 1973, featuring never-before-heard audio clips from their conversation.
Covid-19 and the Climate Crisis by Lorraine Villemaire
The great lesson learned from the experience of Covid-19—that each person is part of a whole—also applies to our destructive treatment of the Earth.
Editorial: Solemn Promises: The Case of Amy Coney Barrett
Parsing the various public concerns about Amy Coney Barrett's faith, jurisprudence, and deference to corporate power.
Fostering Compassion by Anne Kerrigan
We were informed that the department did not do cross-racial adoptions, and so our request was not an option. We were heartbroken. We begged, begged again, and begged some more, but to no avail.
The Hidden Monk by Michael Ford
I had, in fact, noticed the little hardback in my library for years but had never taken much notice of it. I couldn’t remember where I had bought it or how it had got there. But there are always surprises on retreats, and suddenly this lonely little second-hand tome burst into life for the first time. . . .
“The Devil Was Running Things Then”: The Rwandan Genocide and the Poetry of Witness by Andrew Kaufman
A poet processes a global atrocity, bearing witness to a world in which violence, mendacity, and prejudice can somehow coexist with expressions of solidarity and love.
Sinners Don’t Cast Stones by Gene Ciarlo
There must always be room for repentance and openness to grace, for rooting out the desire for revenge and cultivating in its place a desire for forgiveness.
The Child of Fear by Paul Nyklicek
Our primitive fear has served its purpose. Our evolutionary journey needs to continue toward a rational compassion that excludes no one.
“Killed Just for Living in Your American Skin”: Bruce Springsteen and the Role of the Artist in the Nation’s Racial Reckoning by Christopher Pramuk
In Springsteen’s telling, it is not the perfectly heroic life or high-profile actions where light and hope typically breaks through. Fragments of light find their way through in the struggle itself, day in and day out, even and especially when we do not see immediate results.
Editorial: The Double Standard of Justice: A Catholic Response to Kenosha
Too close an association between law enforcement and armed vigilantes does not bode well for democracy, de-racialized policing, or public safety.
From the Archives: “Jose Hobday Loves the Church, Tiptoes Around”
An ongoing series of articles from the TAC archives, beginning with an interview with Native American Franciscan Sister Jose Hobday.
Discerning How to Vote as a Catholic by Fr. Louis Arceneaux, C.M.
Catholic voters need to reflect and decide how they will form their personal consciences based on what they learn from our bishops as well as other sources of Catholic social teaching.
Time to Learn from a Blues People by Alex Mikulich
Lament is not only a critical feature of the blues, it is also central to Catholic faith—we sing during Eucharist that we too, with God, “hear the cry of the poor.”
Passionate about the Wilderness: Edward Abbey and the American Tradition by Leonard Engel
In a time when we are losing the contemplative dimension of the wilderness experience, this 20th-century desert father speaks to us anew.