In a distinguished career as special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights for the United Nations, Australian Philip Alston has visited some of the...
Catholic Voices
School lunchrooms all smell and look the same, the overripe aroma of hundreds of lunches barely contained by cream-colored walls just this side of salmon...
“When are you guys gonna buy a place?” asked a couple sitting at a marriage prep retreat table with my fiancé and me. This was right after the priest leading...
It’s hard to argue that the arrival of Europeans in the Americas was anything other than a disaster for indigenous people. The numbers are disputed, but the...
In high school my tight-knit group of friends and I would converge on weekends at our friend Nicole’s house. We would load up on snacks, candy, and pop and...
There is a rhythm to pipe smoking, a ritual even, one that allows you, if you let it, to enter into a state of contemplation. You must pack the pipe first, and...
Driving on a paved road not far from home last summer, I saw an injured snake, hit by a car, stuck by its open wound to the road. It was curling and writhing...
I love nostalgia even though it’s painful. The word has Greek roots in both the words “homecoming” and “pain.” Every time I go home to my parents’ house, I am...
Art covers the walls of a hip storefront in downtown Waterloo, Iowa. On the Saturday before Halloween, 500 kids make their way inside to claim a piece of...
In April we will mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. He was killed in Memphis while supporting sanitation workers on strike...
