Cover

Beginning of the end

By Meghan Murphy-Gill
A carefully executed campaign to end capital punishment is slowly turning the tide of public opinion in the United States. But will it be enough to deliver a lethal blow to the death penalty?

Sidebar:

The death penalty in the United States: A timeline

Web-only sidebar:

An interview with Sister Helen Prejean on the movement to end the death penalty

Photo story

Made in Bangladesh

By David Snyder
After unsafe working conditions nearly tore the Bangladesh garment industry apart at the seams, new safety standards are attempting to manufacture a better workplace for factory employees.

Expert Witness

Strength in numbers

An interview with theologian Ana Garcia-Ashley
It takes a village, or just a fired up group of concerned citizens, to bring about positive change, says this veteran community organizer. When people with a common cause unite, there’s no telling how much they can accomplish.

Web-only sidebar: 

Ana Garcia-Ashley on immigration reform

Sounding Board

Pay up

By Charles M.A. Clark
Putting a little more money in the pockets of workers earning the minimum wage can give the entire economy a raise. In Feedback, readers provide a cost-benefit analysis on increasing wages.

Essays

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

Essay: Coming out Catholic

By Jeffrey Essmann

For an openly gay Catholic, the best kind of church is one where a person’s faith matters more than his or her sexuality.

Short story: The sixth

By Brian Doyle
Just when a marriage seems to have gotten entirely off course, your spouse can come through with a hole in one.

Practicing Catholic: Famous last words

By Catherine O’Connell-Cahill
The obituaries are a place where the stories of the dead can give you a new lease on life.

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 the resurrection of the body?

Columns

The Examined Life: Power to the public workers
By Meghan J. Clark

Margin Notes: The other African crisis
By Kevin Clarke

Culture in Context: Listen and learn
By Meghan Murphy-Gill

Testaments: Where you least expect it 
By Alice Camille