June/July 2026
America’s Most Influential Journal of Religion and Public Life
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Letters—June/July 2026
The sentimental images painted of proud, tight-knit communities slowly crumbling away are compelling, but I have to…
Thomophobia
Every year the American Library Association marks “Banned Books Week,” a celebration devoted mostly to books…
Catholics and Modern Anti-Semitism
For certain personalities, drugs such as methamphetamine have an almost irresistible appeal. Only later does it turn…
The Truth About Christian Hospitality
The world has changed and the ground has shifted under us. All that is solid melts into…
Paul Celan’s Via Negativa
In the twentieth century the messengers shot themselves. Most did so metaphorically, of course, though a few…
Why I Became Orthodox
Bulbous onion domes topped the Corinthian columns, and baroque stucco architraves lit up the drowsy city toward…
Scout’s Honor
My six-year-old son wants to join the Scouts, but I have mixed feelings. As an Eagle Scout,…
Our Strange Catholic Moment
American Catholicism is in steep decline. In 2000, 2.6 million American children attended Catholic schools. In 2025,…
A Dreadful Humility
At some point we must give up trying to understand other people. Love them, surely. But recognize…
The Education of Cole Tomas Allen
The most terrifying and telling contemporary piece of American writing is about a thousand words long. It…
Prodigal Child
Something of a shift in the landscape is signaled when a press like Polity releases, almost simultaneously,…
Kinder, Gentler Repression
Vladimir Putin chose to invade Ukraine in the month of February, rather than waiting a few weeks…
Idle Hands
The myth of Narcissus tells of a beautiful young man’s obsession with his own image, captured in…
Delicious Longing
One day around 1836, in the ancient city of Dijon, the young French poet Aloysius Bertrand was…
Briefly Noted
What if Flannery O’Connor had been forced to live through Australia’s COVID-19 lockdowns and its surrounding political…
Pope and President Tangle
In April, the Holy Father and the president of the United States traded barbs. The proximate cause…
Quantitative Judgments Don’t Apply
For years I have aspired to read Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honour trilogy. But bound together the…
Can Yale Lead Reform?
In early April, Yale University released the “Report of the Yale Committee on Trust in Higher Education.”…
While We’re At It
In Palm Sunday reflections posted on his website, Coram Fratribus, Bishop Erik Varden observes: In the Saint…
Birds
I wait for themthis dark spun dawn,kinglet, titmouse, nuthatch, wren,names so sweet on winter’s frozen tongue,such feathered…
Irises
Only he could see them clearly: the wayThey curl their shadows close beneath their leaves, Cupping clefts of…
Tool and Toy
When you select the proper tools to use,favor those that make delightful toys,like whistling tops driven by…
