Cover

Through a glass darkly

By Anna Weaver
Though mental illness carries far less stigma than it once did, Anna Weaver relates the painfully honest appraisal of Catholics with it who sometimes don’t feel comfortable in their own parishes.

Sidebar:

Resources for those with mental illnesses

Interview

When bishops brawled

An interview with church historian Philip Jenkins
Follow this church historian back to the days when bishops brought squadrons of monks–with weapons–to church councils. In this interview with the editors, Jenkins explains how what we believe today was the result of some “hands-on” theology.

Sounding Board

Get off the fence

By Joshua Hoyt
Catholics can no longer hem and haw when it comes to the reform of our country’s immigration laws, argues Joshua Hoyt. Anti-immigrant sentiment is alien to our Catholic tradition. In Feedback readers debate the legal, political, and moral issues of immigration reform.

Feature

Catholic workers

By Michelle Bearden
When it comes to charity, staffing the soup kitchen and collecting canned goods count, of course, but Michelle Bearden has found five Catholics who show some true creativity when it comes to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Essays

(Essays, short stories, and poems may not be available online.)

Wise Guides: Thea-logy

By Sister Charlene Smith
Twenty years ago Sister Thea Bowman, F.S.P.A. got even bishops to dance. That alone might qualify her for canonization, and her fellow Franciscan sister, Charlene Smith, describes a woman whose “little” light still shines.

The case for Deacon Pam

By Phyllis Zagano
The Vatican may have settled the question of women priests, argues Phyllis Zagano, but there’s no reason women can’t serve as deacons–and lots of reasons why they should.

When it’s hard to be a Catholic

By Father Francesco Iacona, C.M.F.
There are days when even the most faithful among us are ready to throw in the towel. But even when the church lets us down, it helps to remember the God who always bears us up.

Departments

Editors’ Note

You May Be Right (Letters to the Editor)

Signs of the Times (News)

Catholic Tastes (Humor)

Culture in Context: Music, film, and book reviews

At Home with Our Faith  (Family spirituality)

Eye of the Beholder (Art meditation)

Glad You Asked: What is heresy?

Columns

The Examined Life: To eternity and beyond!
By Bryan Cones

Margin Notes: A few fit men
By Kevin Clarke

Culture in Context: Critical conditions
By Patrick McCormick

Testaments: Dads behaving badly
By Alice Camille