Helene Stapinski

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Helene Stapinski is the author of three books of nonfiction, including 2017’s Murder in Matera, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times.

Must Reads

Politics

Father Land

The thread running Michael Brendan Dougherty’s book is the author’s spiritual development, which culminates in the discovery of his own vocation as a father.
By Santiago Ramos
June 25, 2019
Religion

A Girl in Need of a Tourniquet

In the second season of ‘Fleabag,’ the titular character begins a sexual relationship with a priest. What follows is a heady tale of guilt, loneliness, and pain.
By B. D. McClay
June 11, 2019
Religion

Lingering on the Margins

The church is a liminal space I’m lingering in: a space of transition, of walking along boundaries, of being neither in nor out, of neither staying nor leaving.
By Mary M. Doyle Roche
June 2, 2019
Religion

Have You Tried Scotus?

The medieval Franciscan philosopher and theologian Duns Scotus is barely studied today. But the church would be enriched by a renewed engagement with his works.
By Peter L. P. Simpson
May 29, 2019
Religion

Staten Island Spirituality

A few years before the founding of the Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day began sketching her vision of radical gospel living in a Staten Island newspaper.
By Anne Klejment
May 27, 2019
Culture

Questions of Identity

Who are we when the idea of who we thought we were is threatened? A common thread at Cannes, the question arises from our fraught political moment.
By Travis LaCouter
June 25, 2019
Culture

The Exonerated Five

Ava DuVernay’s new docudrama about the Central Park Five reflects a basic dilemma: what should we focus on when we look at race in the United States?
By Rand Richards Cooper
June 21, 2019
Books

Friends & Benefits

I agree with the values of sacrifice and care, and I often find Briallen Hopper’s writing tenacious and lovely. So why did her book leave me not quite satisfied?
By Katherine Lucky
June 17, 2019
Books

From Data to Wisdom

Toni Morrison’s style is stately, not so much ornate as complex, not so much stentorian as insistent, authoritative, often fierce.
By Valerie Sayers
May 3, 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
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