Paul Baumann

Article

Confronting the Specters

Like most human institutions, the church has long avoided telling the truth about much of its past. But that doesn’t mean its understanding of human life is false.

By Paul Baumann

April 25, 2019

Sexual-abuse Crisis

Bishops

Columnists

Article

Mother Ireland

The sport of hurling speaks volumes about Ireland. The country’s glories and perversities are both scrutinized and celebrated in Edna O’Brien’s novels.

By Paul Baumann

March 30, 2019

Books

Columnists

Article

A Relentless Interrogator

A new collection of essays by the famed New Yorker critic Janet Malcolm evinces her winning enthusiasm for the idiosyncratic and esoteric.

By Paul Baumann

March 21, 2019

Books

Columnists

Article

A Language Problem

Yes, wrongdoing needs to be condemned. But Democrats can’t win over the electorate without actually connecting with it.

March 14, 2019

Article

Stalemate

What is especially depressing about our current impasse, both political and ecclesial, is the sour taste it leaves in everyone’s mouth

February 13, 2019

Article

Shrouded Figures

A visit to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington occasions reflections not only on how we see, but who we think is worth seeing

February 5, 2019

Must Reads

Politics

The Birth of Social Democracy

Democratic socialism, increasingly appealing to young people today, extends democracy into the economic realm. The idea’s not new; we need to explore its history.

By Gary Dorrien

April 8, 2019

Religion

The Reform Seminaries Need

Seminaries still have a role to play, and should not be abolished. But they should no longer be factories for clericalism, elitism, and misogyny, as they often are.

By C. Colt Anderson & Christopher M. Bellitto

April 8, 2019

Culture

Anyway in Spring

He’s got the crazy light about him that he had in the beginning. Before cancer. When everything that he said startled her.

By Danielle Chapman

April 21, 2019

Culture

Envisioning the Afterlife

What is the afterlife? How do we value lives different from our own? We can’t know what comes next, but philosophy urges us to confront the questions.

By Meghan Sullivan

April 9, 2019

Books

An Interview with Carolyn Forché

Poet, editor, translator, and human-rights activist Carolyn Forché speaks about Óscar Romero, Liberation Theology, and the Catholic Church in El Salvador.

By Nicole-Ann Lobo

April 12, 2019

Collections

The Church in Asia

As Christianity and Catholicism expand in Asia, we’ve put together a collection of Commonweal’s best writing on the subject.

By The Editors

April 17, 2019