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2 weeks ago | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick
The swift elevation to the papacy of Chicago-born Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost—known simply as ‘Bob’ among his fellow Augustinian friars—defied pundits’ predictions even as it was met with joy by Catholics around the world. It’s impossible to say just how Leo XIV’s papacy will unfold, though in his early Masses and remarks the pope has already voiced strong support for the continuation of Francis’s project of synodality.
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1 month ago | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick
Two thousand years of history have produced no shortage of metaphors and images for the Catholic Church, some more resonant than others. For liberal Catholics like me, brought up and catechized according to the Second Vatican Council’s conception of the Church as the pilgrim People of God and wary of conservative nostalgia for the medieval ecclesia militans or post-Reformation societas perfecta, Francis’s understanding of the Church as a “field hospital” struck a deep chord.
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2 months ago | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick |Stephen Pope |George Scialabba |Helen Rouner
Whatever your opinion of New Jersey senator Cory Booker—I confess I’ve often dismissed him in the past as histrionic, a little too thirsty for attention—it’s hard to deny that his marathon speech on the Senate floor was impressive. Sen. Booker’s “vigil,” which lasted for more than twenty-five hours, set a new record for the longest speech ever recorded in the chamber.
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Feb 13, 2025 | 
catholicoutlook.org | Griffin Oleynick
Somehow amidst his presumably demanding duties as vice president, J. D. Vance also found time to spark an intra-Catholic debate over the meaning of ordo amoris, or “rightly ordered love,” a phrase that appears in Augustine’s City of God as well as Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica.
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Feb 12, 2025 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick |Matt McManus |Todd Shy |Vincent Lloyd
Somehow amidst his presumably demanding duties as vice president, J. D. Vance also found time to spark an intra-Catholic debate over the meaning of ordo amoris, or “rightly ordered love,” a phrase that appears in Augustine’s City of God as well as Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologica.
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Dec 25, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick
There’s a scene in Amarcord, Federico Fellini’s semi-autobiographical 1973 film based on his upbringing in Fascist-era Rimini, in which the director’s plucky adolescent alter-ego, Titta, and his prankster companions find themselves enduring a tedious series of lessons delivered by a set of hapless schoolteachers.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Dominic Preziosi |Griffin Oleynick |Regina Munch |Rand Richards Cooper
Article 2024 Election: Street View “You can’t move!” John protested. “We have work to do.” Article Down, not Done “For now, I am holding it together by redoubling my commitment to living in a way that cuts against Trump’s cynicism, fear mongering, and braggadocio.” Article We Can’t Disengage We have to fight for the good of everyone in this country, quelling their well-founded fears and showing the way out of unfounded ones.
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Nov 6, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick |Charles McNamara |Stephen Pope |Regina Munch
“Give me something hard to do tonight,” I texted my dad early on Election Day. He’s been coaching me for months now, sending me weekly running workouts ever since I began training for a half-marathon back in July. Since then I’ve been sweating through after-work speed intervals in Central Park two evenings per week, as well as waking up early most Saturday mornings to run “long” across all five boroughs of New York City.
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Aug 29, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick |John Fea |Brandon Ambrosino |Ian Corbin
As the fall semester begins, colleges and universities are bracing for fresh controversies over free speech, affordability, and the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence. On this episode, Tania Tetlow, the first layperson and first woman to serve as the president of Fordham University, joins editor Dominic Preziosi to weigh in on what Catholic colleges and universities can do differently.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | George Scialabba |Griffin Oleynick |Joseph Sorrentino |Kathleen Hill
It’s weird to feel like you miss someone you’re not even sure you know. —David Foster Wallace, Infinite JestNot long ago, I stopped at our neighborhood bookstore and there on a back table among scattered secondhand paperbacks I saw one I’d read many years before and since forgotten. It was called Catholics and was written by Brian Moore. Bree-an Moore, I said to myself, then wondered where I’d learned to pronounce the name that way.
