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1 week ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Emily Sanna
This year, reading the gospels during Holy Week, I can’t help but put myself in Mary’s shoes. What must it have been like to see Jesus at the cross, her little boy arrested by the same government oppressing her people? This woman, who sang the Magnificat when she learned she was pregnant, who dreamed about overthrowing oppression and building a new world, must have been so proud of her son. He had taught people a new way of being together and fought to build the world she taught him about.
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1 week ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter
“It’s a weird job for a Jew in Tennessee, but somebody’s got to do it.” This is how A. J. Levine, a professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at the Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, describes her 28 years teaching at Vanderbilt Divinity School. “I trained Christian ministers and religious educators,” she says. “I could not simply remain on the historical level of biblical interpretation.
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1 week ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Mike Mastromatteo
A new release from Boston-area novelist Jennifer Haigh ponders questions of causality and randomness in the lives of ordinary people striving for meaning in a seemingly “oblivious” cosmos. Rabbit Moon (Little, Brown and Company), released this April, describes the tribulations of a contemporary American family whose iconoclastic daughter disappears for a new life in Shanghai.
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1 week ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Kevin Considine
In the end, the world will be saved by beauty. This was one of Dorothy Day’s favorite quotes from Dostoyevsky. And it’s a fitting description of the experience of listening to U.K. artist Michael Kiwanuka. Kiwanuka is a gifted singer, musician, and songwriter who is not well-enough known on this side of the Atlantic.
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2 weeks ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Celeste Kennel-Shank
Longing brought me back to the hope of the resurrection. A longing stronger than any I had known, in the midst of a loss unlike any that came before. Eighteen months earlier, when my father died three days after Easter, I didn’t feel the disbelief about his death that is so common among mourners, whether or not one sees and touches the body. In its place, I felt finality, nothing beyond.
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2 weeks ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter
“I fully expect the church to be persecuted,” says Bishop of El Paso Mark J. Seitz. Seitz has just spoken out strongly against the anti-immigrant policies of U.S. President Donald Trump in a sermon following a march through downtown El Paso in defense of immigrants and refugees on March 24.
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2 weeks ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter
“What’s your confirmation name?” is a peculiarly Catholic icebreaker. The question is based on generations of Catholic children choosing a saint’s name for confirmation. Many children see the custom as an opportunity to express individuality (“See, Father, there is a St. Wolfgang!”), while religious educators often use the tradition to introduce students to the communion of saints.
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2 weeks ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter
For those who dedicate their lives to serving others, reality television often feels far removed from their daily experiences. If your work involves providing job opportunities for those who formerly were incarcerated or advocating for victims of human rights abuses, competing for a cash prize or a rose on national television might seem irrelevant—or even absurd.
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3 weeks ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Joseph Sorrentino
In 1531, the Virgin Mary appeared to Juan Diego on a hill known as Tepeyac (now part of Mexico City), leaving her image on his cloak. At first, a bishop stored the cloak four miles away in Tlateloco, but in November 1538, pilgrims brought it back to Tepayac. “After the first chapel was built in Tepeyac, there was a pilgrimage to bring [the cloak] there,” says Mauricio Reyes, the leader of the conchero group Palabra General de Santiago Tlatelolco.
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3 weeks ago | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Stephanie Clary
Years ago, I attended a popular Catholic women’s conference where a young participant asked one of the presenters for advice on how to pursue a career as a lawyer alongside a vocation to motherhood. She felt called to both. “Maybe some careers aren’t fit for moms,” the presenter proclaimed. The young woman’s face registered shock and defeat at this blunt, unimaginative response. It wasn’t exactly the mentoring support the event had promised for female faith leaders.
