by guest writer Elizabeth Zeigler Today, on her feast day, I revel in a little-known fact about St. Katharine Drexel. Her name is commonplace on hospitals, schools, churches, missions, and college campuses. Her work for and reach to the most marginalized was undoubtedly tremendous. She was the embodiment of a missionary disciple. Hers was a life lived at the peripheries – despite, or perhaps because of, her family’s wealth – to meet and be with those most in need…. Read more
March 3, 2019
St. Katharine Drexel’s Life Teaches Us That Philanthropy is a Sacred Call
March 3, 2019 By guest writer
December 18, 2018
Mary of Nazareth and #MeToo
December 18, 2018 By guest writer
By guest writer Angela Himsel Every woman I know, including me, can legitimately say: “Me, Too.” But maybe the most famous of the “Me, Too” women couldn’t come forward and admit that she’d been sexually harassed or touched against her will. Instead, men wrote her narrative. They decided she wasn’t a victim of non-consensual sex; rather, she had been chosen for the most important job ever: to carry in her womb the Savior of mankind. And how could Mary say… Read more
October 21, 2018
To Believe or Not To Believe? Part 2: Faith vs. Knowledge
October 21, 2018 By guest writer
By guest writer William M. Shea Now I bring in “knowing and knowledge” to bump up against believing and beliefs. I know both sin and suffering for I have done them both, but what shall I believe about them? Common usage of the terms knowing and believing amount to this: what you know you don’t need to believe; what you believe you don’t yet know. Simple, no? Add to this the fact that each of us knows very little… Read more
October 15, 2018
To Believe or Not to Believe? Part 1: It’s Personal
October 15, 2018 By guest writer
By guest writer William M. Shea The problem of belief and knowledge is not a mere “academic concern.” In fact the issue has been of paramount importance to me since I was a child. I can’t say now that is still unresolved for me because it has been resolved in good part for well over a decade. For fifty years, from the age of ten, the question of belief affected my self-understanding as a Catholic and a Christian, my religious… Read more
September 3, 2018
To Patheos Catholic Readers: Pondering Our Identity In A Time Of Crisis
September 3, 2018 By guest writer
By Rebecca Bratten Weiss This column, The Font, was initiated by former Patheos Catholic channel manager Elizabeth Scalia, as a sort of “agora” where diverse viewpoints from our eclectic group of columnists and guest contributors might be aired. Later it was resurrected by my predecessor, Sam Rocha, who was responsible for recruiting me as a writer for Patheos, as part of his commitment to maintaining a broad cross-section of Catholic thought. In his article explaining the purpose both of this… Read more
August 1, 2017
An Open Letter to Feminist Religious Sisters
August 1, 2017 By Guest Contributor
We need you. We really need you. We’re young Catholic feminist women, and we’re lost. Read more
July 21, 2017
What Should Catholics Think of the “Alt-Right”?
July 21, 2017 By Guest Contributor
Were it not for the 2016 presidential election, I would have thought “alt-right” was a computer keyboard command. Thanks to the current political climate, I have become acquainted with a group, an ideology, a way of viewing the world that send chills down my spine. The term “alt-right” was coined in 2008 by Richard Spencer, a white nationalist, who achieved media prominence after Trump was elected when he held a national conference during which he claimed that Trump’s presidency created… Read more
October 25, 2016
If Pope Francis “Failed,” What Does That Say about Benedict?
October 25, 2016 By Guest Contributor
It is frequently observed that citizens use cognitive heuristics, or short-cuts, to make sense of the world. One unfortunate manifestation of this is our tendency to credit or blame the President for almost everything. The same can be true of our attitudes toward the Pope. A recent example is Matthew Schmitz’s suggestion in a New York Times op-ed that Pope Francis has “failed”. The reason for such a stark appraisal? Mass attendance among American Catholics is not increasing and fewer… Read more
October 13, 2016
How Stories Unlock The Truth
October 13, 2016 By Guest Contributor
The world’s being squeezed by a vise. On one side is materialism, determinism, no Creator, or a god that’s indistinguishable from creation. Thus, it’s up to man to take control—Serling’s “The Obsolete Man”, Orwell’s “1984”, Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451”. On the other side, the God of rules. Obey and go to heaven, disobey and go to hell. Thus, man’s role is to propitiate a capricious lord and master—Zeus, Tolkien’s Sauron, the god of ISIS and some fundamentalist Christians. Mercy and justice, unfathomable… Read more
August 29, 2016
Talking to My Daughters About Hilary Clinton
August 29, 2016 By Guest Contributor
I have two teenage daughters. It isn’t difficult to explain to them why I will not be voting for Donald Trump. He stands in direct contradiction to our beliefs, and I am convinced that his temperament would not make him a suitable leader for our country. But a few weeks ago when Hilary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated to run for President of the United States, I found myself struggling with how to talk to my girls… Read more
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