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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

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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Culture

A ‘Leonine’ Version of Synodality?

A ‘Leonine’ Version of Synodality? From an institutional point of view, the most consequential, long-term legacy left by Pope Francis to his successor is synodality. While Paul VI had conceived and instituted the Bishops’ Synod in 1965, it was not for “synodality” as we think of it now, but was rather an expression of episcopal collegiality between the bishops and the pope. With Francis, the Synod became the culmination of a long process of ecclesial discernment in the sensus fidei, through t...

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Society

Will the Encyclical Reach ‘People of Goodwill’?

Will the Encyclical Reach ‘People of Goodwill’? Pope Leo XIV’s encyclical Magnificas humanitas is about more than artificial intelligence, in the same way that Pope Francis’ Laudato si’ was about more than the environment and Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum—the foundational document of modern Catholic social teaching—was about more than labor and work. The newest missive may be “On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence,” but it also touches on war and peace, the r...

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Healthcare

Repairing the Broken

Repairing the Broken The phone rang at two in the morning like a siren in a war zone. I sat up quickly and answered the call in a hushed voice, careful not to wake my wife or the children who had found their way into our bed during the night. How unaffected we become even by the most unusual and extreme circumstances when those circumstances become routine. There is nothing normal about waking from deep sleep to make decisions that mean life or death. Nothing normal about rushing into work as...

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