The Font - Into which many Catholics dip…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Catholic Blogosphere and the Tenacity of Conscience

August 21, 2016 By Sam Rocha

Patheos.com hosts eleven faith channels, ten topical channels, and numerous other galleries and special topics that range across nearly all religious traditions–including those, at the Atheist Channel, opposed to nearly all religious traditions. At the Patheos Catholic Channel, this breadth is an inspiration. After all, part of being Catholic is to be catholic. In the grit of everyday work an inspiration can become a burden or at least a daunting challenge, as one can read in our ongoing series on “Catholicity: Identity… Read more