Latest

Feature

The Entry into Darkness

A visit to the Simonopetra Monastery reveals the challenging work of monastic living: What does it mean to "empty" ourselves?

By Benedict Coleridge

May 14, 2025

Europe

Religious Life

Religion

Article

A Family Connection

John Rodden writes on a relative entrusted with a momentous task: organizing the burial of Pope Francis.

By John Rodden

May 12, 2025

Religion

Pope Francis

Article

Interregnum Report

Commonweal editors curate a twice-daily roundup of updates about the conclave.

By The Editors

May 12, 2025

Current Issue

May 2025

Contents

Remembering Francis

On this episode, three theologians reflect with Commonweal editors on the pope’s legacy.

Listen:

U.S. Catholicism

Article

Dancing Free

A mesmerizing new production of Richard Strauss’s Salome at the Met Opera offers viewers a violent, mind-bending staging of the biblical texts.

By Michael Peppard

May 11, 2025

Culture

Feature

More than a Theologian

Theologian David Tracy was absorbed by the sheer ineffability of God—and by the absolute need to speak of God nonetheless.

By Kenneth L. Woodward

May 10, 2025

Theology

Religion

Article

‘Reverse Course’

“Reversing course” on the AfD would mean undoing the struggle of generations against the legacy of Nazism.

By John Connelly

May 10, 2025

Europe

Politics

Donald Trump

Article

Holy Chaos

"In this holy chaos, my first feeling was joy. I didn’t know what this new pope portended for the life of the Church, and it didn’t matter."

By Randy Boyagoda

May 9, 2025

Bishops

Religion

Pope Leo XIV

Article

‘God’s Love Is Always Spoken in Dialect’

Francis was “of the people” in his understanding of theology: he drew on popular rituals and the stuff of daily life as theological sources.

By Carmen M. Nanko-Fernández

May 8, 2025

Pope Francis

Theology

Article

Fumata Nera

It’s tempting just to treat the conclave as a political event; it’s also tempting just to focus on the workings of the Holy Spirit.

By Randy Boyagoda

May 7, 2025

Pope Francis

Bishops

Religion

Commonweal Magazine | Religion, Politics, Culture

Must Reads

Politics

More, or Else

Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson offer a vision of a progressive future in which Democrats stop getting in their own way.

Bernard Prusak

March 24, 2025

Religion

Francis’s Church?

From an emphasis on the global church to synodality, Pope Francis brought an outsider's perspective to his twelve-year papacy.

Massimo Faggioli

April 21, 2025

Culture

‘The Church Is What We Do Next’

The final twist in 'Conclave' is hardly sensationalistic: it raises real questions about how the Church accommodates people outside binaries of sex and gender.

Mollie Wilson …

March 27, 2025

Books

Coming of Age in America

James Chappel’s new book offers a fundamentally optimistic guide to the shifting view and experience of aging in America.

Peter Quinn

April 9, 2025

Collections

Francis and 'Commonweal'

Bringing together Commonweal's coverage of Francis's transformative papacy, from his inaugural Mass to a rebuke of J. D. Vance.

The Editors

April 21, 2025