January 2026
VOL. 91, NO. 1
Scroll through the Table of Contents to view what’s in this month’s print issue. Some articles are available only in the print issue: Subscribe today to get full access to all the material you see listed below. And remember to sign up for our weekly email so you never miss an online article!
Features
In communion
BY DON CLEMMER
Some Catholics worry about politicizing the Eucharist. But it’s already political.
A stake in the future
Religious communities are investing their money in ways that can change corporations for the better.
Columns
THE EXAMINED LIFE
Looking forward, looking back
BY FATHER TOM MCGANN, C.M.F.
As you reflect on 2025 and the year to come, for what are you grateful?
CULTURE IN CONTEXT
Everyone’s champion
BY JOHN CHRISTMAN
Tennis star and equal rights advocate Billie Jean King is a role model for reconciliation.
SALT & LIGHT
A moral parable
BY LEONARDO MENDOZA
Attacks on clergy praying outside Broadview Detention Center show how rights to religious expression are fraying.
MARGIN NOTES
Back to the fossil fuel future
BY KEVIN CLARKE
To prioritize coal over clean energy makes little moral—or practical—sense.
TESTAMENTS
Circles of belonging
BY ALICE CAMILLE
To be Catholic is to belong to a universal community, not bound to other names, loyalties, or creeds.
GLAD YOU ASKED
What is purgatory?
Departments
Editors’ Note
You May Be Right (Letters to the Editor)
From the Archives
Poetry
Reviews (Music, Film, Books)
Eye of the Beholder (Art meditation)
Wise Guides
Poet of the divine
BY CHRISTINE VALTERS PAINTNER
Mechthild of Madgeburg, in her love-rich writing, encourages the overflow of compassion for the vulnerable.
Essays
Waiting on a word
BY CHRISTINE VALTERS PAINTNER
There is power in the patient act of listening for words that call to you.
A higher allegiance
BY ELLYN SANNA
Sometimes doing God’s will means breaking the law. Just ask these saints.
Sounding Board
Other obligations
BY STEPHANIE CLARY
Should we look beyond Mass attendance to gauge someone’s faith engagement?
Expert Witness
Between two worlds
An interview with Catherine Conybeare
Understanding Augustine means recognizing both his Roman education and his North African roots.
Home Faith
In defense of overplanning
BY DON CLEMMER
How one family planned a year of joy—against the odds.
