Posted inCatholic Book Club

Charles Davis: Orthodoxy, anarchy and the wild world of Catholicism after Vatican II

by James T. Keane November 10, 2026

Charles Davis in an undated photo. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Amid the ferment and tumult in the Catholic Church in the years following the Second Vatican Council, a number of the council’s theological consultants (periti) became figures of note in their own right, at least among Catholics with a close or vested interest in the council and its implementation. Readers of America are likely to be familiar with many of their names: Murray, Rahner, Ratzinger, de Lubac, Congar, Häring, Baum, Küng. There was a time in the late ’60s when any of them could easily pack a lecture hall at a Catholic university in the United States. 

Posted inNews

Pope Leo tells Argentine youth: Stand firm, become saints, ‘go and proclaim’

by Ines San Martin – OSV News November 10, 2026

Attendee hold candles during a youth vigil with Pope Leo XIV at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Nov. 10, 2026. Credit: OSV News photo/Yara Nardi, Reuters

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (OSV News) — Nearly four decades after young Argentines filled the streets of Buenos Aires for a historic World Youth Day with St. John Paul II, over 1 million gathered in the same city on Nov. 10 for an outdoor prayer vigil with Pope Leo XIV.

The atmosphere recalled that 1987 gathering: a celebration of faith drawing young people who came with Catholic movements, parishes and families, while others arrived alone. Some carried flags or wore matching shirts identifying their communities; others brought little more than backpacks, water and the determination to secure a place near the evening’s centerpiece, the Monumento de los Españoles.

DC bishop says 'collective action' trounces big money and other midterm takeaways

 

Opinion

DC bishop says 'collective action' trounces big money and other midterm takeaways

Michael J. O'Loughlin  ncr

Pope Leo urges Argentina to protect the vulnerable from Milei’s austerity measures

 Pope Leo urges Argentina to protect the vulnerable from Milei’s austerity measures

By ISABEL DEBRE, NICOLE WINFIELD, ALMUDENA CALATRAVA and DEBORA REY The Associated Press,Updated November 9, 2026, 6:44 p.M

BOSTON GLOBE

About 2.5 million of the Catholic faithful attended a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV at the Monument of the Spaniards in the Palermo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.TOMAS CUESTA/AFP via Getty Images

BUENOS AIRES — Pope Leo XIV delivered a sweeping tribute to the dignity of workers before Argentina’s labor and business leaders Monday in what critics of Argentine President Javier Milei took as a rebuke to his libertarian agenda, capping a day that began at a disability home struggling under his government’s spending cuts.

The two politically charged stops bookended Leo’s first Mass in Argentina, which the Vatican said drew an estimated 2.5 million people — the largest crowd of his papacy.

 

Short Take

A president who can’t forgive

Trump would rather be himself than go to heaven

by Zac Davis November 9, 2026

Credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon Illustration: America Media

Let’s call it “The Narcissist’s Wager.”

Ross Douthat, a former opinion columnist for The New York Times (and occasional guest on the America Media podcast network), is now a correspondent for “60 Minutes,” and he scored an interview with President Donald Trump days after a midterm election in which his party and brand of politics suffered a stinging defeat. Mr. Douthat and Mr. Trump spent most of the interview going over many of the issues that could have prompted the election results—the Iran war, mass deportations, the economy—but the end of the conversation went to a place where maybe only Mr. Douthat could have taken it. He set up Mr. Trump with a hypothetical wager. 

Ohio’s Republican electoral slate showcased MAGA at its worst.

 

Sycophants, Snakes, and Creeps

Ohio’s Republican electoral slate showcased MAGA at its worst.

Max Foley-Keene

November 9, 2026

Election 2026

Politics

Donald Trump

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Youngstown, Ohio, October 12, 2026 (OSV News photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters).

Midterm elections are rarely favorable to the sitting president’s party, but the GOP didn’t have to lose this badly. Trump and “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth didn’t have to start the war in Iran—the purpose of which they never quite bothered to explain—by bombing a girls’ school. Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick didn’t have to levy a haphazard array of tariffs that seemed almost consciously designed to punish states with competitive Senate elections. Trump didn’t have to sic men like former border-patrol commander and SS cosplayer Gregory Bovino on Midwestern cities.

4 of Trump's mistakes that made him GOP's worst enemy in the midterms

 

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  Matthew N. Green

4 of Trump's mistakes that made him GOP's worst enemy in the midterms

Guest Voices  NCR

Catholic theologians urge US bishops to speak against Iran war ahead of assembly

 

Catholic theologians urge US bishops to speak against Iran war ahead of assembly

News

• NCR

  Camillo Barone