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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

Technology

Reading ‘Magnifica Humanitas’

Reading ‘Magnifica Humanitas’ As recent advances in artificial intelligence have radically altered the way we learn, teach, work, and even wage war, and as they begin to challenge our assumptions about what sets us apart from our machines, Pope Leo XIV has emerged as an eloquent critic of the way this new technology is being employed, and of the pretensions of the Silicon Valley technologists who control it. As expected, his much-anticipated first encyclical, Magnifica humanitas, offers a com...

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Culture

Following the Football

The article explores the cultural significance of football, examining how the sport reflects societal values, community identity, and the complexities of fandom in contemporary life.

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Politics

Book Tour or Campaign Stump?

Book Tour or Campaign Stump? The reviews of Vice President J. D. Vance’s new book Communion are starting to roll in, and the consensus is that this sequel to his bestselling Hillbilly Elegy is as much a political accounting as it is a spiritual memoir. Still, the subtitle—“Finding My Way Back to Faith”—promises that the book will discuss Vance’s conversion story to Catholicism, so it’s not surprising that much of the chatter on the book-tour circuit has focused on questions of religion and mo...

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Politics

Searching for Something to Celebrate

Searching for Something to Celebrate For several days in late June, a black Ford F-250 pickup with Wyoming plates took over multiple parking spaces on a street in my Brooklyn neighborhood. An outsized exhibit of compensatory masculine menace—knobby tires, raised suspension, bulging fenders—it was for good measure bristling with aggressively pro-Trump bumper stickers, decals, and banners. There were warnings and wisecracks about immigrants and trans people, the “Biden crime family” and “stolen...

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Culture

No, but I Skimmed It

No, but I Skimmed It It should come as no surprise that the pontiff who penned the first papal encyclical on artificial intelligence prefers print to screens. When Pope Leo praised reading in his May address to the Vatican Publishing House, he specifically highlighted the material aspect of printed books: “In the digital age, the physicality of the book reminds us of the role of thought, reflection and study.” The pope did not elaborate further, but had he wanted, he could have bolstered his ...

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Culture

Can the Church Reconnect With Europe?

Can the Church Reconnect With Europe? If the schedule imposed by the 2025 Jubilee made Pope Leo something of a “prisoner of the Vatican,” the first half of 2026 has provided much greater opportunity to travel. The summer promises more—namely, travel to key locations for the Church on the old continent. After returning from Spain, his first multiday European trip as pope, Leo headed for Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, Italy, the birthplace of St. Frances Cabrini, to be followed by Pavia, Italy, where t...

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Society

Whatever Happened to Synodality?

Whatever Happened to Synodality? At their meeting last week, the U.S. bishops debated proposed revisions to the U.S. church’s guidelines for dealing with sex abuse, the so-called “Dallas Charter.” First promulgated in 2002, the document has been periodically updated, and the bishops were ready to vote on further revisions, including adding language to emphasize the right of accused priests to “the presumption of innocence.” The committee chair insisted there had been sufficient consultation, ...

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Geopolitics

Innocence & Impotence

Innocence & Impotence A few years ago, I overheard a conversation among some of my colleagues at the CIA, many of whom were military veterans. They were discussing drone operations on the Ukrainian frontlines, and the conversation turned to whether drone operators qualify as aces. Ace is a title that suggests courage, evoking the image of daring airmen of the world wars. Calling drone operators aces, my colleagues concluded, felt cheap; their kills were too remote, their position too safe. Th...

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Education

Beyond Couch and Clinic

Beyond Couch and Clinic As Robert Coles and I were walking around Harvard’s campus a half century ago, searching for a suitable place to photograph him for Newsweek, he suddenly stopped and pointed to William James Hall. “You want to know what’s the matter with psychology and the social sciences?” Coles asked me rhetorically. “That’s what’s the matter with psychology and the social sciences.” At the time, William James Hall was home to the department of Social Relations (psychology, sociology...

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Geopolitics

Toward a Civilization of Love

Toward a Civilization of Love Over the past decade, civilizational discourse has become a staple of global political thought. This discourse presents nations like India, Russia, and, now, the United States as sacred bearers of a unique historical and cultural heritage. The term also evokes colonial echoes of a “civilizing” mission, positing one people as superior to others it encounters. Given historical work like Mike Davis’s Late Victorian Holocausts, this dimension of civilizational discou...

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Culture

Second Century Associates

Second Century Associates Support the Second Century of Commonweal Drawing upon the Catholic intellectual tradition, Commonweal is a space where people of all faiths and none can find meaning, hope, and human connection. We present ideas in a spirit of justice, charity, and critical intelligence, and we offer a forum where writers from many backgrounds can engage the issues of the day with depth and seriousness. From theologians and philosophers to political analysts, economists, cultural cri...

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Politics

Changing the Calculus of Power

Changing the Calculus of Power During morning rush hour in Chicago last week, ICE agents crashed into a bystander’s car while trying to detain a Venezuelan migrant. After tackling the screaming, shirtless man to the ground and handcuffing him, agents tased him, according to a local reporter and other witnesses on the scene. Then they used the taser and pepper spray to threaten bystanders who had gathered and started blowing whistles. In the chaos, an agent dropped a loaded magazine in the str...

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