For Catholics and many other Christians, the season of Lent began with Ash Wednesday, with ashes that symbolize human mortality. Lent is a time of repentance for sin and of preparation for an intense remembering, at Easter, of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus. The Jesus who is remembered...

In 1936 Vermont was one of only two states not to give its electoral votes to Franklin Roosevelt. Despite the Depression, a majority of Vermonters refused to give up a culture of individualism, self-reliance and small government; the majority remained very hostile to the New Deal even as it helped...

In the Catholic Church's calendar, All Saints Day, Nov. 1, is coming soon, a day when we remember all the holy ones, those officially recognized or canonized and those not. They are models of Christian discipleship, exemplars of virtue and of justice and of charity, they are those we believe...

Confusion of leadership and administration, as if they were synonyms, exacerbates a sense of crisis in the Catholic Church today. I believe that leadership has to do with excellence and with passionate and exemplary performance of a given role or task. Thus, leadership may be found in any profession or...

In the United States the year 2011 marks at least two major public anniversaries, both of them recalling painful examples of the role of violence in the nation's history: the sesquicentennial of the beginning of the Civil War, and the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Such...

Times are indeed changing, even for popes. Maybe especially for popes. A new book, The Papacy since 1500: From Italian Prince to Universal Pastor, explores how the papacy has changed greatly, and repeatedly, during the past 500 years through forces largely beyond its control.

This book's essays focus on select,...