Race | Commonweal Magazine

Race

Article

Naming the Sin

Words like ‘racism’ and ‘white supremacy’ make people uncomfortable. But as El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz points out in a new letter, we must reckon with them.

October 19, 2019

Borderlands & Barrios

We talk to Benjamin Francis-Fallon about his new book, The Rise of the Latino Vote. And the Commonweal staff speaks about what they witnessed at the border in El Paso, Texas.

Article

Some Hope on Columbus Day

Ultimately, prejudice is defeated not so much by institutions as by individuals.

By Paul Moses

October 14, 2019

Race

Domestic Affairs

Immigration

Article

Liberator & Tyrant

Educated by Irish Catholic missionaries, Robert Mugabe helped Zimbabwe create a new middle class. But in his refusal to relinquish power, he committed atrocities.

September 19, 2019

Article

‘Emotional Archaeology’

Famed documentarian Ken Burns traces the long and complex history of country music, revealing old American tensions between personal and collective freedom.

September 13, 2019

Article

‘National Conservatism’

The most serious effort to update right-wing ideology for the Trump era was unveiled this July at a conference dedicated to “national conservatism.”

September 9, 2019

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