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Articles
Touching the Assisted Suicide Void
Eloquent, determined, heedless of personal risk, the British journalist Derek Humphry was a born campaigner. In 1975 he helped his cancer-stricken wife to commit suicide, then wrote a book...
Leo XIV and the Best-Case Scenario
The philosopher Michael Oakeshott, the leading conservative thinker of his generation, regarded politics with distaste; he voted for the Tories, he said, โbecause they do the least harm.โ The...
The Last Modern Pope
Who am I to judge? More and more, the earth, our home, seems to resemble an immense pile of filth. We donโt need to be like rabbits. Make a...
Lurid andย Marginal
โI think religion has got everything appallingly wrong,โ Sir Diarmaid ยญMacCulloch told an interviewer in 2015, โand it has been terrible for us in sexual terms.โ Now here is the book to prove it, and you could not find a...
Iain McGilchristโs New Era
Once, the story goes, man stood at the center of the universe. He looked in the mirror and saw a masterpiece: โHow noble in reason, how infinite in faculty...
What Conclave Yearns For
The pope is dead. Sede vacante. From the round earthโs imagined corners come the 120 cardinal-electors, the progressive and the conservative, the extrovert and the taciturn, the Latin and the...
Assisted Suicide and the Politics of Fear
How can Britainโs assisted suicide bill, which comes before the House of Commons on Friday, possibly fail? Although it is not an official government bill, the prime minister is...
Charity and Sarcasm
The Sound of Silence: The Life and Canceling of a Heroic Jesuit Priestby karen hallcrisis, 240 pages, $18.95 Near the start of this book, there is an unexpectedly absorbing...
Cultural Influence, Political Decline
No prizes for discerning the religious publishing trend of Fall 2024. Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith; American Christian Nationalism: Neither American Nor Christian; The...
Joan of Arc, Gender Theorist
When the nineteen-year-old Joan of Arc was told she would be burned at the stake, she reacted with horrorโnot for the reasons you or I might give, but on...
The Pope and the Black Hole
In a by now familiar sequence of events, the Vatican released a document on Monday which caused instant confusion. โPope says Roman Catholic priests can bless same-sex couples,โ the...
Escape from Irony
Dimes Square and Other Plays by matthew gasda applause, 284 pages, $22.95 Are you religious?โ alcoholic rich kid Jay asks high-achieving Ellie. โSpiritual,โ she replies. JAY: So you go...
Archbishop Fernandez, Preacher of Chaos
Have you heard about the scandalous writings by the new head of the Vaticanโs doctrinal office? No, no: I donโt mean Heal Me With Your Mouth: The Art of Kissing,...
What I Saw at NatCon U.K.
If you look around you,โ one glum questioner remarked in the first Q and A, โthis isnโt exactly a young crowd.โ But his comment must have been pre-prepared, because...
โTen Years of Pope Francis
Ten years into Pope Francisโs pontificateโhe first waved from the balcony of St. Peterโs on March 13, 2013โhe has been analyzed, praised, criticized, and interviewed ad nauseam. He began...