Marx derided religion as an opiate destined to fade away but ultra-orthodoxy is on the rise. What happened to make faith one of the most dynamic forces in the world?
Transparency has brought not openness but paralysis; the ability of legislative bodies to do their job requires a closed door behind which compromise can be reached.
Many people in the West who do not share Christian faith nonetheless share with Christians many of the key ethical values that energize democratic political life.
The pattern of income inequality is more than a social problem, Robert Putnam says; it's a social tragedy, most devastating in the lives of poor American children.
Bernie Sanders is reminding his party of something it often forgets: Government was once popular because it provided tangible benefits to large numbers of Americans.
It is a mark of how much has changed so quickly that Ireland's vote for gay marriage was the expected outcome, even if the breadth of that outcome was breathtaking.
While other countries outspend the United States in infrastructure, political ideology and lack of investment leave our railroads, highways, and airports crumbling.
Do Catholic institutions actually convey an education in humanistic culture—or in prophetic culture, for that matter? Do they do this in the classroom? Or elsewhere?
Why have any sympathy for Jeb Bush? His apparent desire to stay true to his family ties. Loyalty is in short supply in our culture, so I admire it when I see it.
The dirty little secret of major-league banking is that it is not very profitable. And slowly, but inexorably, the behemoth American banks are shrinking.
At the 126-year old Catholic Church in Freddie Gray's neighborhood, where structural sin can be fatal, parishioners find ways to work for justice, not just charity.
What implicates morality more than how we as a society and individuals treat those who are cut off from the ladders of advancement and the treasures of prosperity?
The European Union's intent to address migration from Africa comes as a welcome if belated development in a crisis that has been crying for moral leadership.
In Indiana there are plenty of service-sector jobs. But they don't pay nearly as well as the manufacturing jobs Indiana has lost. Can organizing address that?
Pundits will have great fun with a socialist in the race. But before laughing Bernie Sanders off, a short primer on socialism in the United States might be useful.
Charles Camosy believes we are “on the verge of a new moment in the abortion debate," politically capable of compromise. But has he misunderstood Catholic teaching?
The effect of violence on the lives of children: high rates of depression, criminal behavior, domestic violence, rape, substance abuse, and acquired disabilities.
What's remarkable about the postwar era is the speed and depth of Western Europe’s recovery. But do its problems today come from pushing the accomplishments too far?
Pinckney's short history deals with basic things—Reconstruction, Ku Klux Klan terrorism, crude political machinations like Plessy v Ferguson—white people can forget.
At a gathering of the Secular Coalition for America, the Delaware Democrat spoke on his own faith as well as the need to respect those who choose not to believe.
The pro-British kings archeologist-turned-spy-turned-colonel T.E. Lawrence helped establish in Arabia, Iraq, and Transjordan made "Arab unity" a "madman's notion."
Catholic opinion on climate change matches the American political spectrum, and thus the polemics around this polarizing issue are Catholic polemics as well
Often the way our society treats "senior citizens" assumes that as bodies age, individuality decreases. But aren't whiskers and white socks a sign of unique wisdom?
Baltimore is Exhibit A for the frustration over how the costs of globalization and technological change have been borne almost entirely by the least advantaged.
The world’s democracies, perhaps especially our own, face a set of contradictions that are undermining faith in public endeavor and unraveling old loyalties.
