Politics

Ohio has known hucksters like J. D. Vance before. The state has a long memory for men who climb the ladder and then kick it down after them.

Accepting the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal, Pope Leo explored the relationship between political freedom and care for the vulnerable.

The Declaration’s grievances offer a portrait of political domination, teaching us what it feels like to be subjects rather than citizens. Can we recognize the predicament it describes?

The United States, on its 250th birthday, is a country in decline. American Catholics should embrace this sour semiquincentennial as a moment for discernment.

Can James Talarico's blend of Christian uplift and progressive populism strike a chord among the Texans who have eluded Democrats this century?

The Obama Center is surely a monument to one man’s leadership—but it also issues a call to every American to do their part in making the country a better place.

Chris Jennings's book about violent Christian separatists traces the fracturing of American society. But was America ever whole before, and can it ever be now?

On the eve of its 250th birthday, does the United States still present something of a model for mankind?

… The reviews of Vice President J. D. Vance’s new book  Communion are starting to … to Faith”—promises that the book will discuss Vance’s conversion story to Catholicism, so … and morality. But even on those topics, Vance comes off more as a politician running …

Russia’s war in Ukraine may go down in history as the beginning of a new era of industrial warfare—with AI-powered drones at the center.

As the midterm elections approach, the Church must embrace more explicitly political strategies to combat Trump's war on immigrants.

Donald Trump's killing spree at sea is indefensible on legal, ethical, and moral grounds.

At Trump's Rededicate 250 event, religious leaders insisted that America was founded as a Christian nation. The claim doesn't withstand historical scrutiny.

October 2025 saw the first known transfer of Church-owned land to a tribal nation as an explicit act of reparation. What can the experiment teach the rest of the Church?

With autocracy on the rise, Pope Leo has an opportunity to rearticulate the Church’s positive teaching on democracy.

The moment has arrived for a new papal document that would offer a comprehensive Catholic condemnation of authoritarianism and a moral defense of liberal democracy.

If Democrats want to create a durable coalition for a more just society, they must be willing to acknowledge the moral seriousness of pro-life convictions.

Trump is not only the most corrupt president in American history—he is more corrupt than all other corrupt presidents by orders of magnitude.

By serving as a voice for truth and challenging Americans to think critically about complex political issues, Colbert will go down in history as more than a comedian.

Whether Democrats secure a narrow majority in the upcoming midterms or thrash Trump’s GOP, successful female candidates will be central to the story.

This year’s Venice Biennale was designed to be the most intimate and reflective in recent memory. Instead, it has turned into the most politically clamorous.

"On many days I wish I liked Catholics more, and I guess I wish my fellow Catholics had liked me more."

In our age of authoritarian certainty, divinity schools have an important role to play in constructing a liberal vision of human flourishing.

Senate candidate James Talarico’s faith-first approach to public service may offer a path out of our toxic politics. But first, he’ll have to win Texas.

Why do conservatives blame ‘cultural Marxism’ for nearly everything?

For Anton Jäger, ours is an era of political excitation absent durable organization. Pope Francis can help us envision a better way forward.

Trump keeps pushing policies that are opposed by Catholic teaching—and this U.S.-born pope doesn’t seem to be willing to keep quiet about them.

Political scientist and statistician Ryan Burge discusses polarization, declining institutions, and the future of religion in the United States.

Franz Kafka’s sword-wielding Lady Liberty seems like an all-too-fitting symbol of what America has become in Trump’s second term.

The postliterate society may also be a postliberal one.

President Trump’s supporters have offered some implausible scenarios on the likely outcome of his war with Iran—as well as some wild justifications for it.

Church leaders have long advocated for a world political authority. Such a power may be the only path to perpetual peace.

The Church is gaining credibility for speaking up for Gospel values in the public square—even when it means criticizing a president that nearly 60 percent of Catholic voters chose.

It’s too soon to determine whether the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon will last. In the meantime, the Lebanese have their dead to bury.

The farmworkers’ movement was never meant to be about one man, but the people. After the Cesar Chavez revelations, that must remain our ideal.

My time in the borderlands taught me that there is dignity in the deviant and the criminal. Even Judases need an advocate.

Why doesn't the government work anymore? Marc J. Dunkelman sits down with 'Commonweal' to discuss government procedure, progressive politics, and the "abundance movement."

Rutger Bregman thinks most of us are wasting our lives. But is there a limit to how much we ought to sacrifice to do good?

The unbinding of Lazarus is a collective action in a moment of deep crisis. It is public work, building power out of mourning.

In 2016, I became a Trappist novice at St. Benedict's Monastery. Now, this place of peace is being purchased by a zealot for war: Palantir CEO Alex Karp.

Trump-appointed border czar Tom Homan is a lifelong Catholic, but do his zero-tolerance immigration policies align with Church teaching?

Phil Andrew survived a school shooter’s bullet and has dedicated his life to countering violence. Now he’s running for Illinois’s ninth Congressional District seat.

While Trump wants to narrow who qualifies as a citizen, the World Baseball Classic offers a different idea of belonging.

Donald Trump will go down in history as the president who made AI a weapon of war.

With U.S. and Israeli bombs dropping on Tehran, Europe is once again cowed into silence because of its addiction to American power.

Can any amount of Trumpian wrongdoing shake MAGA Evangelicals?

Poet Dan Chiasson’s ‘Bernie for Burlington’ functions as a triple bildungsroman of Bernie Sanders, the city of Burlington, and Chiasson himself.

A new scorecard assesses whether members of Congress support legislation that advances Catholic social teaching. Catholic Republicans do not perform well.

For worshippers at a Chicago-area Ash Wednesday Mass, Trump's cruelty against migrants is nothing less than a spiritual crisis.