Arts & Culture, Catholic Book Club

Wendell Berry: the cranky farmer, poet and essayist you just can’t ignore

by James T. Keane December 7, 2021

Wendell Berry reads one of his poems from at the 2014 Festival of Faiths. (Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

A writing project for America’s Advent reflection series last week gave me occasion to revisit a favorite poem (“IX”) by an author who knows more than most about seasons, both liturgical and agricultural: Wendell Berry. Now 87 years old, this man of many labels (Is he a farmer? A novelist? An environmental activist? An essayist? A poet? A cultural critic? A cranky old professor? A Christian prophet?) has been a voice of practical reason and concise cultural commentary in his more than 80 books published over six decades.

25 years after 9/11, peace still eludes us

 

Opinion

25 years after 9/11, peace still eludes us

John Stowe, Charlene Howard   ncr

What synodality means for religious life and the Catholic Church

 

eptember 2, 2026

What synodality means for religious life and the Catholic Church

Sr. Joyce Meyer   ncr

Posted inFeatures

How an F.D.N.Y. chaplain was formed by 9/11

by Edward Desciak August 13, 2026

Chris Keenan, O.F.M., with members of the F.D.N.Y. in New York Credit: Octavio Duran

On Sept. 15, 2001, thousands of people gathered to mourn Mychal Judge, O.F.M., the beloved chaplain to the Fire Department of the City of New York. The Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street in Manhattan could not hold the massive crowd. So while the funeral Mass was being celebrated, Chris Keenan, O.F.M.—the man who would become Father Judge’s successor—was standing across the street, arm in arm with his neighbors, the firefighters of Ladder 24.

 

Catholic Social Teaching Is Having a Moment

The Church’s best-kept secret is helping redefine Catholicism’s role in American politics.

Heidi Schlumpf

August 31, 2026

Please email comments to letters@commonwealmagazine.org.

Pope Leo XIV blesses a plaque at Molo Favaloro in Lampedusa, Italy, July 4, 2026. (OSV News photo/Remo Casilli, Reuters).

At the beginning of each semester, I ask my undergrads at Loyola University Chicago how many of them have heard of Catholic social teaching (CST). Usually only a few hands go up, confirming the adage that this portion of the magisterium is indeed the Church’s “best-kept secret.” In my course, students learn the principles of Catholic social teaching and apply them to contemporary issues, including immigration, racism, war and peace, economic justice, life issues, and global warming. Many of them say they are surprised and grateful to learn that the Church has something to say about topics that weigh heavily on their minds and hearts.

Why I hate the old Latin Mass: A confession

 

Guest Voices

Opinion

Why I hate the old Latin Mass: A confession

Thomas Reese, Religion News Service  ncr

Bill Gates and Silicon Valley congressman latest to endorse pope's AI encyclical

 

Vatican News

Bill Gates and Silicon Valley congressman latest to endorse pope's AI encyclical

Vatican

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  Justin McLellan

Following in Jesus's Footsteps

 

 

 

Becoming Disciples

Following in Jesus’s Footsteps

Sunday, August 30, 2026

READ ON CAC.ORG

 

 

Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” — Matthew 16:24–25 

Father Richard Rohr reflects on how discipleship ultimately leads to the cross and identifying with the pain of the world:

My assumption is that Jesus’s totally counterintuitive message of the “cross” had to be sent to earth as a dramatic and divine zinger, because God knew we would do everything we could to deny it, avoid it, soften it, or make it into a theory (which is exactly what we did anyway). Yet this is the message of Jesus that cannot, and must not, be allowed to be pushed into the background. We believe in a Jesus-kind-of-Christ—a God who is going to the mat with humanity and not just presenting us with a heavenly, cosmic vision. If Christ represents the resurrected state, then Jesus represents the crucified/ resurrecting path of getting there.