Higher Education

A Call to Public Life

Massimo Faggioli comments on the legacy of Don Lugi Sturzo, the Italian priest who resisted fascism and insisted on the right of lay Catholics to engage actively in politics.

Secularism and Modernity

Social Justice

Higher Education

Article

The Little Ivies’ Aggiornamenti

Francis Oakley’s memoir about higher education emphasizes “the lifelong pursuit of liberal learning”—education through engagement with those who disagree with you.

By Nicholas Clifford

June 6, 2019

Higher Education

Academic Freedom

Article

The Legacy of Fr. Ted Hesburgh

The late Fr. Ted Hesburgh transformed the University of Notre Dame into a leading institution. A new book tendentiously ignores key aspects of his life and work.

By Kenneth L. Woodward

May 21, 2019

U.S. Catholicism

Vatican II

Higher Education

Article

The Gadfly

In his work, the late historian John Lukacs embodied a Christian humanism, one that ideologues on both the left and right did their best to bury. He will be missed.

By John Rodden

May 18, 2019

Foreign Affairs

Higher Education

Article

A Textbook Case

A lot of people fancy themselves history buffs, obsessing over names, dates, and numbers. But facts aren’t narratives. And history can’t be learned from a phone.

May 16, 2019

Article

College as Department Store

However enchanting arcane research and increasing specialization might be, it is not going to help preserve democracy in a truly free society.

By Paul Lakeland

May 6, 2019

Higher Education

Secularism and Modernity

Social Justice

Must Reads

Politics

When the Laity Led

In Nicaragua, revolutionary hope has given way to resentment and resignation. Can the popular church reclaim its role as the country’s conscience?

By Eileen Markey

October 1, 2019

Religion

When the Amazon Meets the Tiber

What matters at the Amazon synod is not the imperative of universal consistency across all regions of the church, but the pastoral welfare of the People of God.

By Austen Ivereigh

October 9, 2019

Religion

When Americans Become Saints

Men have often tried to shape the stories of holy women to narrow the boundaries of what female holiness can look like. Just look at Elizabeth Seton.

By Mollie Wilson O'Reilly

September 26, 2019

Culture

Saying the Unsayable

Poet and novelist Fanny Howe is an experimental writer’s experimental writer, the author of dozens of books, one who remains publicly, committedly Catholic.

By Anthony Domestico

September 27, 2019

Books

Inescapable Influence

Whether we like it or not, we in the West inhabit a world that remains structured by Christian assumptions and informed by Christian ideas.

By Costica Bradatan

September 30, 2019

Collections

Fiction in Commonweal

To celebrate the publication our summer fiction issue, a new collection of short stories from our archives.

By The Editors

July 30, 2019

Collections

Labor & the Catholic Church

Commonweal writers have long engaged with the church’s stance on labor rights, worker justice, and income inequality. Here are the best pieces from our archives.

By The Editors

July 10, 2019