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Select a Month May 2019 February 2019 December 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018

May 2019

May 16, 2019

There is No Pro-Life Movement

Catholicism in the last few decades has been consumed by a tension between two struggles....

February 2019

February 12, 2019

The Catholic Case for Student Loan Forgiveness

I came across this article recently on a friend's social media feed. It describes the trap many...

February 10, 2019

At Home in the World in the Era of Climate Change (Petrarch)

Back over a decade ago when the debate over climate change was starting to heat...

December 2018

December 02, 2018

Cookies, Cakes, and Coming Home (First Day of Advent)

I really value the traditions of Advent. The preparations for Christmas are almost more exciting...

October 2018

October 14, 2018

Why the Church Needs Women (Everywhere)

A relative asked me recently: “When will you just decide you’re through with the Church?”...

October 05, 2018

Kavanaugh and Bad Faith

I sometimes imagine talking to my daughters, who are quite young now, in twenty years...

September 2018

September 18, 2018

Burning the Rainbow and Other Wrong Ways to Save a Church in Crisis

It's easy enough to be sad this Autumn. The Church is yet again in crisis...

September 05, 2018

Jim Bakker, Narcissism, and the Trouble in Trumpville

Every year my family and I take a trip to the deep woods of Northern...

August 2018

August 26, 2018

Pope Francis and the Defense of Journalism (Viganò’s Letter)

American politics has embraced hyper-polarization as a way of dealing with uncomfortable truths about modern...

August 22, 2018

New Horrors, Old Memories: Abuse and the Church

There is a small Episcopal church in my hometown and it has had an important...

August 07, 2018

Poems, Experience, and Voices Not Your Own

If you don't follow the poetry world, you may have missed the recent kerfuffle at...

August 04, 2018

Humanae Vitae, Casti Connubii, and the Economics of Justice

July marked the 50th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the Papal Encyclical that solidified/clarified/revised the Church's...

July 2018

July 31, 2018

When Plans Change (Reading and Living with Saint Ignatius)

When you attend a Jesuit college, you become fluent in the various labels that come...

July 30, 2018

Sharing Space with the Dead

On our last full day in France (we’re settled back in the Nutmeg State now,...

July 22, 2018

Trump, Catholic Cosmopolitans, and Cathedrals

I have been slow writing these columns lately because I have been in France for...

July 14, 2018

Pro-Life Movements and the Problem of Other People

In the past year, I have become involved in a new ministry at my parish...

July 11, 2018

Praying toward No (Anne Boyer, “No” )

So often in prayer, we hope for yes. A yes to our wishes. A yes...

July 09, 2018

Young Catholics and the Culture Wars

A while ago I wandered into an argument on social media. Always a wise move...

July 09, 2018

Prayer, Pain, and Passivity (George Herbert, “Artillerie”)

When I was young, so many descriptions of prayer tried to emphasize how active and...

July 03, 2018

Independence Day (Phyllis Wheatley, “To Maecenas”)

July 4th always brings me back to Boston. In most cases, it is because I...

July 01, 2018

Approaching July 4: Loving America in a Shameful Era (Chris Thile, “Live from Here”)

If you pay attention, America can be hard to love. As a society, we have...

June 2018

June 27, 2018

Donald Hall, Prose when Poems Fail

Donald Hall was the first poet I ever wrote to. He passed away on June...

June 21, 2018

Reading the Calm in the Morning (Maggie Smith, “Weep Up”)

Though for most of my life I was a night owl, since I became a...

June 15, 2018

Jeff Sessions’s Cynical Reading (Paul’s Letter to the Romans)

I have often taught Saint Paul's Letters. Paul is popular among philosophers and literary theorists...

June 12, 2018

Reading the Body’s Future (Jorie Graham, “At Luca Signorelli’s Resurrection of the Body”)

It is late spring still. So much of the news has been bad. The natural...

June 10, 2018

Lady Bird, I, Tonya, and Two Modes of Ambition

So we are not quite into summer yet, but it’s just around the corner. Outdoor...

June 09, 2018

The Poet and Suicide (Sylvia Plath, The Moon and the Yew Tree)

This week we were stunned by the suicides of both Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain....

June 07, 2018

Reading Beauty (Luis de Gongóra and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz)

It’s a humid day here in Connecticut, warmer than expected. Weeks of frequent rain have...

June 05, 2018

How to Read like a Catholic (Augustine, Confessions)

Augustine is one of those sources that you can’t help but turn to again and...

June 01, 2018

To Read with Joy and Delusion (Christian Wiman’s Joy: 100 Poems)

Reading exists as much in our fantasy lives as it does in our routine. How...