On Apr. 9, 1945, German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed by hanging at the Flossenbürg, Germany concentration camp two weeks before American troops liberated the prison. A mere 39-years-old, Bonhoeffer was arrested because he associated with parties who conspired to assassinate Hitler in July 1944. While he was active

On Dec. 8, 2020, Pope Francis promulgated his Apostolic Letter, Patris Corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the declaration of St. Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church and to proclaim a Year of St. Joseph. Patris Corde is a meditation on the life of

As most Catholics are well aware, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. And, of course, almost everyone associates Lent with giving something up, even if they do not understand the penitential importance of the season. “I gave that up for Lent” is a common refrain,

When I taught theology to undergraduates, I would ask for a show of hands of those students who agreed with the statement, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” In most cases, every hand went up, even from the most devout students. And my reply would be, “I didn’t

Toward the end of his life, American journalist and historian Henry Adams, dissatisfied with the adequacy of his traditional education, composed his memoir, The Education of Henry Adams. “The object of education,” he suggested, “should be the teaching . . . [of ] how to react with vigor and economy”

On Oct. 3, Pope Francis promulgated the third encyclical of his pontificate, Fratelli Tutti, signed at the tomb of St. Francis on the vigil of the saint’s feast day. The Holy Father takes his title – “All Brothers” – from St. Francis’ Admonitions, a short series of spiritual exhortations to

    “History” is not the accumulation of facts in the past, but rather what we say about, and the use we put to, those facts. This is not to say the facts are unimportant, nor should they be manipulated by the historian. A conscientious historian wants to be as

Twentieth Century theologian John Courtney Murray, S.J., remains the most important interpreter of the American Catholic experience of citizenship and religious liberty. Featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1960, Father Murray was a chief architect of Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Liberty. In his seminal book, We Hold

Because of well-publicized, persistent instances of racial discrimination, the summer of 2020 has seen a rise in race-consciousness across the political, ideological and religious spectrum. And it is correct to note that racism in American society is, in some sense, systemic. Despite authentic legal, political and social progress, racism can

Social distancing in my family, with six children at home, has been less about loneliness and more about trying to find a place in the house to be alone. While, of course, there are challenges, my days of “isolation” have been filled with all sorts of interactions (and distractions) with