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Commonweal

Commonweal

Magazine | United States | Centre-Left
www.commonwealmagazine.org/

Liberal Catholic magazine offering independent commentary on religion, politics, and culture.

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Discussions from Commonweal

Geopolitics

When Art & Geopolitics Collide

When Art & Geopolitics Collide The Venice Biennale has never been merely an art exhibition. It is a diplomatic instrument dressed up as a cultural event, a map of the world redrawn every two years between the pavilions of the Giardini and the Corderie of the Arsenale. This year, however, the sixty-first International Art Exhibition has made the matter explicit. The jury resigned. The European Commission threatened to revoke two million euros in funding. The Italian government dispatched inspe...

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Education

Leaning into Catholic Identity

Leaning into Catholic Identity As graduates walked across the stage to receive their degrees at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio, over Mother’s Day weekend, the ceremony was more poignant than usual. Lourdes is one of at least three Catholic colleges closing this year, part of a wider trend expected to claim hundreds of institutions over the next decade. The closures are the result of declining enrollment, much of it caused by the “demographic cliff” of prospective college-age students, m...

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Culture

Black Spirituality and Community in a Digital Age

Black Spirituality and Community in a Digital Age As church attendance declines among younger generations, Black people of faith are building spiritual communities through Instagram, Substack, podcasts, and other digital platforms. But can you build a thriving spiritual community when most participants never meet in person? Join us Thursday, May 7, at 6 p.m. for an evening of reflection and discussion with educator, historian, author, and Osun priestess Juju Bae, and Buddhist minister, author...

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Culture

Praying with Mary in Pompeii

Praying with Mary in Pompeii Around the world, there are thousands of churches and shrines dedicated to Mary. Some, like the Basilica of Mary Major, where Pope Francis chose to be buried, have their origins in early Christianity. Some of the more modern Marian shrines, such as Guadalupe, Lourdes, and Fátima, attract pilgrims from all over the world, drawing millions of visitors annually. But an Italian shrine that contains a once-discarded Marian icon has captured the interest of Pope Leo XIV...

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Politics

Leo Looks to the Council

Leo Looks to the Council One year into Leo’s pontificate, the first American pope has hardly kept quiet about his priorities. Leo’s firm stance against war, authoritarianism, and economic injustice was on vivid display during his pastoral visit to Africa, and his defense of migrants is sure to be made even sharper on his upcoming symbolic trip to the island of Lampedusa on July 4. It’s surprising, though, that another of Leo’s priorities seems to garner relatively scant attention: his renewed...

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Politics

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? A few months ago, a trusted source emailed me insisting I listen to Ezra Klein’s podcast interview with Texas Democratic senate candidate James Talarico. “I’ve never heard a politician speak so clearly, authentically, and movingly about his own faith and of the contribution that faith perspectives can bring to civic life,” he wrote. At the time I knew less about him than I did about his opponent, U.S. representative Jasmin Crockett, in the then-upcoming March 3 Democ...

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Culture

A Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight

A Treasure Hidden in Plain Sight Not too long ago, I had the privilege of spending a summer carrying out research at the University of Chicago for a book I am writing about the French sociologist Raymond Aron. Working in the archives at the Regenstein library, I would take short breaks to explore the sprawling university campus and its gothic architecture. As a bibliophile, the clear highlight of the campus for me was the Seminary Co-op bookstore, one of the best academic bookstores in the Un...

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Culture

The Serpent in the Garden

The Serpent in the Garden Most Americans would probably say that the capitalist West won the Cold War, but they would be wrong. They need to wake up and realize that, in the long run, Marxism has prevailed by worming its way into every aspect of American culture. Think about it: it’s been years since Disney last released a Marvel movie where a white man named Chris was the lead star; instead, it’s been pumping out cultural propaganda featuring scientific impossibilities, such as Black mermaid...

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Culture

Leo vs. the Americanists

Leo vs. the Americanists In 1899, Pope Leo XIII sent a letter to the Catholic bishops of the United States condemning the errors of what he called “Americanism”—a temptation, he warned, to embrace pluralism, religious liberty, and freedom of expression, and other dangerously “Protestant” ideas in an effort to help Catholics assimilate to the surrounding culture. Not only did the Catholic Church eventually embrace most of the concepts that Leo deplored, but even at the time, the American bisho...

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Culture

Literature and the Commonweal

Literature and the Commonweal “In this time of global crisis—of war and deep polarization, of rigid paradigms and mounting climate and economic anxieties—we need the brilliance of a new language, powerful stories and images, the voices of writers, poets, and artists.” I was struck when Pope Francis wrote these words, and struck again when he repeated them, almost verbatim, on May 27, 2023, at a conference in Rome organized by Georgetown University and La Civiltà Cattolica, which I then edited...

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Culture

Ross Douthat Delivers 19th Annual Commonweal Lecture

Ross Douthat Delivers 19th Annual Commonweal Lecture On April 8, readers and friends of the magazine gathered for the nineteenth annual Commonweal Lecture at Fairfield University. This year’s speaker was Ross Douthat, a New York Times columnist and host of the Interesting Times podcast. “The purpose of the Commonweal Lecture series,” said editor Matthew Boudway, “is an extension of the magazine’s purpose—to feature some of the best current Catholic thinking about politics and culture, and to ...

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