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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

👥 Society
January 27, 2026

The Little Hours of Delaney Hall

The Little Hours of Delaney Hall O God, come to my assistance. The DHS detention center is in an industrial part of Newark, in between some warehouses and the county prison, a few hundred yards from where the Passaic River flows into the bay. This area must have been estuary before it was concrete—they tell me the stink was terrible when they had protests here in the summer. But on a January afternoon, there was only an occasional smell of gas when some valve was opened in the fuel depot acro...

United States
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🌍 Geopolitics
January 23, 2026

The Damage Has Been Done

The Damage Has Been Done In a New Year’s Address that will go down in history, not for the temporal scope of its inflated banalities—“Everything seems easier when we look back at the past and perhaps even when we look into the future”—but for its questionable credulity, Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen called NATO “stronger than ever before.” She praised recent progress on security in the North Atlantic, while warning that “Europe must be able to do even more by itself.” Then she said ...

Denmark
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🏛️ Politics
January 21, 2026

A Dangerous Distraction

A Dangerous Distraction For many critics of the Trump administration’s ever more violent and indiscriminate campaign of mass deportation, one of its most disturbing features has been the increased penchant of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers for hiding their faces during raids. Some have maintained that the proliferation of balaclava-clad ICE agents, who call to mind the “secret police” of totalitarian states, is yet another warning sign that the United States is descending ...

United States
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🏛️ Politics
January 17, 2026

Renee Good’s Dignity

Renee Good’s Dignity In the hours and days after Renee Good’s death, members of the Trump administration, without waiting for basic facts to be confirmed, spoke publicly in support of the ICE agent who shot the Minnesota mom three times in the face. But officials did more than mount a defense; they went on offense against the victim. Good was a “domestic terrorist,” said Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem. “A deranged leftist” who was part of a left-wing network, according ...

United States
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📈 Economy
January 16, 2026

The 401(k) Is Tearing Society Apart

The 401(k) Is Tearing Society Apart It’s a financial-planning axiom that’s become virtually sacrosanct: you’re probably not saving enough for retirement. Starting as young as possible, you should scrimp and save and sacrifice like your future life depends on it—because it does. Given that Americans believe they need $1.26 million to comfortably retire yet only half of all households have any retirement savings at all, the advice may seem on point. But what if we’ve got it all wrong? Over the ...

United States
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📚 Education
January 16, 2026

Formulae that Don’t Formulate

The article critiques the limitations of formulaic approaches in various fields, arguing that rigid frameworks can stifle creativity and hinder genuine understanding and innovation.

United States
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🎭 Culture
January 15, 2026

Raising the Bastions

Raising the Bastions The Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar is a figure at once admired and scorned in U.S. Catholicism. An ostensible “radical” before the Second Vatican Council, his postconciliar reputation has long invited the suspicions of liberal Catholics and the cautious, sometimes grudging respect of conservatives. Many theologians are deeply ambivalent about him. The surface of Balthasar’s texts seems to take different shapes depending on the light in which they’re read. It’s no...

United States
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🏛️ Politics
January 15, 2026

Grievance Politics, French Style

Grievance Politics, French Style Every French motorist is required to keep a reflective yellow vest (gilet jaune) in their car for safety in case of a roadside breakdown. But when gas prices went up sharply in 2018, these yellow vests took on a new meaning: French citizens started donning them as an act of protest, taking over traffic circles throughout the country. Already struggling to make ends meet, the protesters were worried about how they would afford to drive to work, and they needed ...

United States
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