The American Parish Today

Article

Way Stations for a Pilgrim Church

The parish, like the country, is changing and diversifying—but we should embrace these changes, and recognize them as opportunities rather than threats to our faith.

By Susan Bigelow Reynolds

March 26, 2020

Article

Teaching & Preaching

Preachers should emulate teachers at mass, striving to be adaptable, humble, loving, and willing to learn by inviting participation from the congregation.

By Natalia M. Imperatori-Lee

March 24, 2020

Liturgy

Article

Joy and Strain in Shared Parishes

Linguistic and cultural differences can create tension in shared parishes, but they are also sources of growth, learning, and celebration.

By Brett C. Hoover

March 30, 2020

Article

Are All Welcome?

Churches are spaces for every part of the body of Christ. By not making them accessible to disabled Catholics, we fail in our commitment to universal inclusion.

By Madeline Jarrett

March 30, 2020

Liturgy

Article

Authentically Black, Truly Catholic

Black people were practicing Catholicism in North America hundreds of years before the United States was founded.

By Tia Noelle Pratt

April 1, 2020

Liturgy

Article

Modeling Change

Community organizing and activism are happening beyond traditional parish structures, generating vitality and purpose from which many parishes could stand to learn.

By Griffin Oleynick

April 1, 2020

Article

Necessary Affirmation

The LGBTQ ministry at St. Paul’s in Manhattan has been a balm within a church that continues to wound.

By Jason Steidl

March 23, 2020

Spirituality

Theology

LGBTQ issues

Article

Just Five Minutes

My parish welcomes families with kids, but I have a small suggestion: shorter homilies, every Sunday. I’m talking five minutes. Six, if you must.

By Mollie Wilson O’Reilly

March 23, 2020

Spirituality

By Dominic Preziosi & Milton Javier Bravo

Article

The ‘Heart Work’

An interview with Fr. Hector Madrigal, pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Amarillo, Texas.

April 7, 2020

The American Parish Today, part I

On this episode we hear from two of the most knowledgeable, hopeful voices in the American church: Susan Bigelow Reynolds, an expert theologian who studies “lived ecclesiology” at the parochial level, and Fr. Hector Madrigal, pastor of the multi-ethnic and multi-lingual St. Joseph’s Church in Amarillo, Texas.

The American Parish Today, part II

In this second special episode on the American parish today, we talk with three writers about their concrete proposals for creating more vibrant, hope-filled parish

Article

The American Parish, By the Numbers

Demographic shifts, a shrinking priesthood, and the financial pressures facing the church all tell a complex story about the future of Catholic parishes.

By The Editors

March 25, 2020

Priesthood