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Nov 18, 2024 | 
uscatholic.org | Nathaniel Hunter |Xavier M. Montecel
On February 15, 2024, over a thousand people gathered at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City to celebrate the funeral of Cecilia Gentili, a prominent transgender activist and advocate for sex workers and people living with HIV. After the funeral took place, a firestorm of controversy erupted. The pastor of the cathedral, Father Enrique Salvo, described the event as sacrilegious, deceptive, and a scandal.
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Apr 22, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Edward Tverdek |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
Is it time to declare the party over? Are we ready to pronounce Earth Day an occasion for mourning rather than celebration? As we seem increasingly unable to address the climate crisis, who do we think we are honoring a planet we’re effectively trashing? We wouldn’t expect parents who neglect their daughter 364 days out of the year to throw an elaborate party for her on her birthday. Why do we celebrate Earth Day in a world seemingly on the irreversible slide toward catastrophe?
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Apr 20, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Paul Baumann |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
The death of football phenom, advertising pitchman, movie actor, and accused murderer O. J. Simpson earlier this month brought forth an avalanche of commentary from those who remember the impact his trial and acquittal had on the country. Like many others, I remember exactly where I was when the verdict came down in 1995. I was in Commonweal’s offices on Dutch Street in lower Manhattan.
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Apr 9, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Jonathan Malesic |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
You need those special glasses. This is true. It’s also true that “Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him,” as Annie Dillard writes in her essay, “Total Eclipse.” “Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it.” I had seen two partial eclipses of 70 percent or so in recent years. They impressed me at the time. But they were trifles compared to what I saw on April 8.
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Apr 4, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Griffin Oleynick |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
Vinson Cunningham is one of the most dynamic critics working today. Best known as the New Yorker’s theater critic and co-host of the weekly podcast Critics at Large, he’s also the author of the novel Great Expectations, based on his experience working for the Obama campaign in 2008.
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Apr 3, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Lauren Kane |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
A week or so before I was due to travel to Warsaw, my text messages were filled with photos of Poland’s Independence Day. They had all the elements of your typical national celebration: streets dense with people, flags aloft over the heads of the crowd, and what appeared to be detonated smoke bombs tinting the dusk with chalky red and white, the colors of Poland’s flag.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
Context Is KeyThe article by Regina Munch (“‘Birth Doesn’t Wait,’” March) is correct that “Birth doesn’t wait. Pain doesn’t wait.” Her article accurately states that the only thing that will end the terrible suffering of all women and children in Gaza is to end the war there. We pray and hope that this will happen soon. We also pray that Hamas will release the prisoners they captured on October 7, and that all terrorists will be eradicated or retrained.
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | Lauren Kane |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
A week or so before I was due to travel to Warsaw, my text messages were filled with photos of Poland’s Independence Day. They had all the elements of your typical national celebration: streets dense with people, flags aloft over the heads of the crowd, and what appeared to be detonated smoke bombs tinting the dusk with chalky red and white, the colors of Poland’s flag.
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Mar 27, 2024 | 
commonwealmagazine.org | J. T. Barbarese |Arvin Alaigh |Xavier M. Montecel |Dorothy Fortenberry
PHOTONS AND HOUSE DUST—La chair est triste, hélas! MallarméDawn. Strange house, a futon. A finger of sunlit duststruck the book you fell asleep onand La chair est triste, hélas!Five words, fingered by sunlight, you, still half asleep,then six more, indexed in smoking gold. You read on: et j’ai lu tous les livres.
