Before I began researching a book about Francis, I’d had the idea that, given his powerful sense of God’s presence, he was always carefree and happy. The truth is more complicated: Francis’s life was encumbered by dark shadows, to the point that he experienced long periods of anguishing separation from God.

A review of Jason Berry's Render Unto Rome

When a Catholic college resists a union

Discuss that and other issues at dotCommonweal's open thread on the midterm election results.

What charter-school advocates don't want you to know

Yesterday's anti-Catholicism & today's Islamophobia

Will Catholic schools become charter schools?

From a new book about St. Francis and the Sultan.

In removing Thomas Reese, SJ, from the editorship of America magazine, the Vatican and certain bishops may have struck a blow to the highly respected Jesuit journal of opinion, but if “these bishops think that clamping down on Reese will alter the way the Catholic Church is presented in the media, they’re wrong,” argues Paul Moses, former religion reporter for Newsday. Moses explains not only why Reese was a trusted source among journalists, but also how Reese was an exemplar of respectful dialogue within the church.