Catholic
Essay
Why We Wait for a Non-European Pope
As Pope Benedict steps down this week, speculation stirs that the next pontiff could be a man of color or from outside Europe. And while …
By Tiffany Stanley
Essay
A Brief History of Papal Resignations
The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, announced for February 28, is an action virtually without precedent. No pope has resigned in modern times. No pope …
By Daniel Bornstein
Review
The Father of Modern Political Cartoons
Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political CartoonsBy Fiona Deans HalloranUniversity of North Carolina Press, 2012 For those of us who work on American religion …
By Leigh Eric Schmidt
The Table
We Need Less Religion in our Politics and Less Politics in our Religion
A few weeks before last November’s election, a yard sign popped up in front of First Baptist Church of West Harwich, Massachusetts, not far from …
By Stephen Prothero
The Table
The Church’s Right to Religious Freedom (And its Place in the Public Square)
With the inauguration over, along with the 2012 election, it’s time to count casualties. The first, as in warfare, is truth. A second might be …
By Mary Ann Walsh
The Table
The Cracks Beneath Obama’s Winning Coalition
Despite a flagging economy and energized opposition, President Obama assembled a winning coalition that delivered him a second term in the White House. Yet even …
By Matthew Schmitz
Report
Can There Be a Religious Response to Planned Parenthood’s Critics?
On most days, when she arrives at the Planned Parenthood clinic she directs in Washington, D.C., Dr. Laura Meyers passes through a wall of Operation …
By Mara Willard
Essay
Is 2012 America’s “Catholic Moment?”
For many politicos and pundits, Mitt Romney’s ascendancy to the top of Republican presidential ticket has marked the high point—so far—of the much-hyped “Mormon Moment.” …
By David Gibson
Report
The Nuns Not on the Bus
Last April, the Vatican issued an 8-page document addressed to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, the major association of American nuns. The “doctrinal assessment” …
By Mark Oppenheimer
Report
Can Obama Win the Latino Protestant Vote?
After John Kerry’s loss to George W. Bush in 2004, I attended at a day-long seminar at the home of Arianna Huffington called “Rebranding the …
By Gastón Espinosa