Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Politics and Religion

2025-11-28T22:19:46-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

From the library: Believe, by Ross Douthat

Last updated on: November 28, 2025 at 10:19 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

With the subtitle, Why Everyone Should be Religious. Is it a perfect book? No. If I were Douthat’s editor, I would have marked up a bunch of passages and asked for him to clarify his statements, particular for subject matter that the general reader wouldn’t necessarily know. But it seems to me that this book, by the New York Times religion columnist, is this generation’s The Case for Christianity, and I want to try to write out a little bit... Read more

Uncategorized

"from the library"

2025-11-28T21:03:21-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Bonus pre-Advent commentary on The Visitation

Last updated on: November 28, 2025 at 9:03 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Why is this “bonus” commentary? Merely because this is an angle that I don’t really see discussed but an incidental reference on twitter piqued my curiosity. Consider the text in Luke 1:39 – 40: “With haste Mary arose and went into the hill country, to a town of Judah, and entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.” From this we get the Hail Mary, in part, and pro-life reflections on how the unborn child John recognized Jesus supernaturally. But... Read more

Uncategorized

2025-10-21T21:07:23-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Just how high will whooping cough prevalence increase?

Last updated on: October 21, 2025 at 9:07 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

My last post, I labelled as a “rediscovered draft.” But sometimes I click on an interesting-looking draft and am disappointed to learn that all I had done was write the title, yet you can guess by the title that this dated to the time when we had localized measles outbreaks and people were worried about antivax sentiment. Of course, whooping cough isn’t measles, but somewhere along the way I stumbled upon a detail that surprised me. I recall seeing, when... Read more

Uncategorized

vaccinations

2025-10-19T20:03:04-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Missing the point of suburban bike-friendliness

Last updated on: October 19, 2025 at 8:03 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Every now and again, I scroll through the drafts to see what I had written and then decided was not yet “ready for prime-time” and afterwards forgotten about. This is one of those: it’s now dated because it was written in reaction to the announcements about pork-spending at the end of Illinois’ legislative session in May, but it’s still a topic I want to raise. **************************** It seems that not just my own but pretty much every suburb wants to... Read more

Uncategorized

urban planning

2025-10-02T11:02:54-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Are Mormons Christian?

Last updated on: October 2, 2025 at 11:02 am By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Are Mormons Christian? That’s the question that’s been under discussion on twitter, triggered by the shooting/arson/attack at a Mormon/LDS church in Michigan on Sunday. Honestly, it’s not clear to me how the conversation shifted from “my heart goes out to those families” to “they aren’t actually Christians.” I suppose most charitably this started as speculation as to whether this was an anti-Christian or an anti-Mormon attack, but possibly this was a matter of just bringing out people with an axe... Read more

Uncategorized

LDS

Mormonism

2025-07-21T19:53:16-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The moral response to immigration enforcement: negotiation

Last updated on: July 21, 2025 at 7:53 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Next Sunday’s reading, it turns out, is a timely one: the first part of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, when God told Abraham he was going to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham negotiated with him to try to get him to spare those cities, as follows:. 20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the... Read more

Uncategorized

illegal immigration

2025-07-04T15:49:42-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Actually, Card. Cupich is hurting, not helping, immigrants

Last updated on: July 4, 2025 at 3:49 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

This is the message that Cardinal Cupich plays on repeat: immigrants have done nothing wrong; indeed, they have been invited here. At his homily at the Pope Leo event at Rate Field in June, he said this: Without question, countries have a duty to secure their borders, protect the public from crime and violence and enact reasonable rules for immigration. At the same time, it is wrong to scapegoat those who are here without documents, for indeed they are here... Read more

2025-06-25T22:07:45-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Why Second-Order Effects Matter (local politics edition)

Last updated on: June 25, 2025 at 10:07 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Several years ago, it was my suburb’s turn to debate the question of flying the “pride flag” during the month of June. As these things go, opponents didn’t explicitly oppose the “pride flag” per se but rather raised the prospect of the slippery slope; having signed on to flying a flag of one interest group, how can you say no to others? Supporters suggested the ordinance limit flag-flying to flags flown on the Illinois state capitol, which, conveniently, numbered two... Read more

Uncategorized

good intentions

Illinois politics

2025-06-04T09:51:26-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is Cardinal Cupich Failing the Archdiocese of Chicago?

Last updated on: June 4, 2025 at 9:51 am By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Cardinal Cupich’s KPIs Key Performance Indicators, that is. Look, Cardinal Cupich, as Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, is the “top pastor” but he is also the CEO of the archdiocese, bearing responsibility for all the operations of the archdiocese. In fact, while he has oversight over every pastor and every parish in the archdiocese, the level of oversight exercised by the Pope is very weak. Perhaps, as an analogy, the Pope is the Warren Buffett of the Church, because... Read more

Uncategorized

Archbishop Cupich

Cupich

2025-05-26T17:03:33-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pope Leo XIV, Dolton, and a changing Chicagoland

Last updated on: May 26, 2025 at 5:03 pm By Jane the Actuary

0 Comments

Our new pope is from Chicago. Or maybe not, depending on definitions. After all, his childhood home is in Dolton, though his childhood church was on the far south side of Chicago. Yet he attended high school at an old-school minor seminary in Michigan, then went off to Villanova for college, attended seminary in Chicago, and spent a number of years at various assignments in the Augustinian order, and, while he returned to suburban Chicago (Olympia Fields) from 1987 to... Read more

Uncategorized

Dolton

Pope Leo XIV

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Jesus, what should you do if someone asks you to go one mile with them?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Go halfway Demand payment Refuse Go two miles

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TRENDING AT PATHEOS Catholic