1+ day, 21+ hour ago   (255+ words) Estevez is a seasoned symphonic oboist with degrees from Yale and a doctorate from Juilliard. She marries her scholarly authority with lived experience, using conversational prose to argue convincingly that any of us—artist or not—can know the nearness…...

2+ day, 15+ hour ago   (581+ words) For our Sounding Board column, U.S. Catholic asks authors to argue one side of a many-sided issue of importance to Catholics around the country. We also invite readers to submit their responses to these opinion essays—whether agreement or disagreement—in…...

2+ day, 21+ hour ago   (710+ words) We are not the main characters in God’s story U.S. Catholic I was working quickly, spreading mulch in my garden, when I flipped over a sheet of cardboard and saw a tiny face with round black eyes staring up at…...

4+ day, 20+ hour ago   (1867+ words) In 1970, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, country artist Johnny Cash recorded his friend Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” a song about a solitary, hard-drinking musician walking through town on Sunday morning and catching glimpses of a communal life from which…...

5+ day, 21+ hour ago   (261+ words) As we write in the following excerpt from our forthcoming book, Palestine, Israel, and Catholic Social Teaching: A Guide (Orbis Books), the core tenets of our faith compel us, as American Catholics, to pay attention to Israel-Palestine, to advocate for…...

5+ day, 20+ hour ago   (777+ words) U.S. Catholic Reflection: What can we learn from Jesus’ encounter with the Canaanite woman? There is a lot about today’s gospel that is discomfiting, not least of which is the apparent disregard Jesus has for a woman in need. To make…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (362+ words) This is my feline conversion story. I live in the urban beach peninsula of Rockaway, Queens, a part of New York City which in many ways is far different than the rest of it. It includes seven miles or so…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (256+ words) uscatholic.org Xania Monet (Hallwood Media, 2026) Around a decade ago, much hubbub was being raised about the “fake artists” that were sneaking their way onto unsuspecting Spotify listeners’ algorithmically-generated playlists. Those were simpler times, though, and said “fake artists” were…...

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (347+ words) Each week, my parish priest encourages us to stop downstairs after Mass for coffee and donuts and to introduce ourselves to someone new—“No cheating!” he says. And most weeks, I roll my eyes, secure in the knowledge that I…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (455+ words) 1 Kings 19:9a, 11–13aPsalm 85:9, 10, 11–12, 13–14Romans 9:1–5Matthew 14:22–33 In today’s text Peter was especially certain of himself and of how things would go if Jesus bid him to come to the water. But before that moment, let’s nail down some of the context: Jesus and the disciples…...