David DeCosse

Sep 30, 2024 | ncronline.org | David DeCosse |Jim Wallis |E.J. Dionne |Simone Campbell

A group of Catholic and Protestant scholars, church leaders and activists issued a public letter urging Christians in the United States and around the world to defend democracy against intensifying authoritarian threats. They also met for two days at a summit in Washington to discuss the letter's key points.

Sep 25, 2024 | ncronline.org | David DeCosse

Anxious comparisons have become commonplace between Germany's slide into dictatorship in the 1930s and the rise of an authoritarian, populist nationalism in the United States today. How should the Catholic Church in the U.S. respond to this troubling moment? The work of the 20th-century political theorist Hannah Arendt can help.

Jun 25, 2024 | ncronline.org | David DeCosse

Written in 1885, the Baltimore Catechism had its pilgrim eyes fixed on the world beyond: To be saved meant that the individual Catholic could "attain the supernatural happiness of heaven."Meeting June 13-16 in Baltimore at its annual convention, the Catholic Theological Society of America brought the matter of salvation firmly back to earth.

Apr 23, 2024 | ncronline.org | David DeCosse

Briana, a 1-year-old migrant girl from Peru, is carried by her father, Jordan, as they search for an entry point into the United States past a razor wire-laden fence along the bank of the Rio Grande in El Paso, Texas, March 26. (OSV News/Reuters/Adrees Latif) The students and I stood in a packed migrant shelter in Altar, Sonora, Mexico, in front of several young men who had clambered down from three-tiered bunk beds attached high up on the wall.

Jan 2, 2024 | ncronline.org | David DeCosse |Tom Hoffarth |Katie Scott

Before serving several hundred unhoused persons on Skid Row, volunteers at the Los Angeles Catholic Worker Hippie Kitchen invoke the prophetic prayer of St. Vincent de Paul over beans and bread about the day's work ahead: "It is only for your love that the poor will forgive you the bread that you give them."The first time I heard the words of St. Vincent, I was offended. Why should I be forgiven for serving the poor? But over the years, the wisdom of the prayer has become clearer.