Pregnant woman portrait

When C-Sections Were Performed to Save Dead Babies’ Souls

In 1804, Charles IV, King of Spain, issued a legal admonition telling officials not to bury any pregnant woman without giving her a C-section first.
Roswell NM mural

Roswell, Sacred Shrine of UFO Enthusiasts

Seventy years ago, something happened in Roswell, New Mexico, that put the place on the map and embedded it into the culture. What was it?
Marshall McLuhan

The Mystical Side of Marshall McLuhan

Communication theorists don't usually merit international celebrity, with one giant exception: Canadian professor and author Marshall McLuhan.
Sanctuary of Fatima

Our Lady of Political Anxiety

From Our Lady of Fatima to the 1949 Virgin Mary sighting in Wisconsin, what do Marian sightings reveal about our political anxieties?
Illustration of Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O’Connor’s Moments of Grace

Flannery O'Connor employed grotesqueness and violence in her stories to illustrate the workings of grace on her characters.
James Joyce

James Joyce, Catholic Writer?

James Joyce remains a novelist whose characters are imbued with a Catholic world view, despite declaring himself to be a freethinking heretic.
Catholic school building

School Choice Since 1800

Donald Trump is putting forward a plan to massively increase the use of public money to pay students’ ...
Chick Tract

Chick Tracts and the Culture Wars

Jack Chick has been called the “most widely read theologian in history.” His Chick tracts have circulated for years. He was also vehemently anti-Catholic.
Radcliffe Quad undergrad housing at Harvard University

Affirmative-Action for White Protestants

A different side to affirmative-action: How legacy admissions maintained white Protestant student enrollment at elite universities.
Original caption: 12/31/1916-Dorothy Day (1897-1980), American journalist and reformer, born in Brooklyn, NY. (Copyright Bettmann/Corbis / AP Images)

Dorothy Day and the Activism of the Catholic Church

We look back at the work of social activist Dorothy Day, who's staunch defense of labor unions fell in-line with the activism of the Catholic Church.