Faith in the Public Arena

In the 1930s, during a time of economic depression and geopolitical upheaval and uncertainty, Catholic Worker movement co-founder Peter Maurin wrote a collection of “Easy Essays” to help people understand and live Catholic teaching in the social and political sphere.

The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states that “participation in community life is not only one of the greatest aspirations of the citizen, called to exercise freely and responsibly his civic role with and for others, but is also one of the pillars of all democratic orders and one of the major guarantees of the permanence of democratic life.”

The story of America is the story of immigration. That is the message of Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez’s important and timely book entitled, “Immigration and the Next America” (Our Sunday Visitor). In it, Archbishop Gomez argues that the immigration debate is about much more than immigration.

Pope Francis has called us to understand the Church’s structures and institutions through “a missionary key.”

The last edition of this column highlighted the main themes of the U.S. bishops’ 2013 Labor Day statement. The bishops are particularly concerned about rising economic inequality and persistent unemployment.

It’s necessary for the Church’s pastors to remind again both Catholics and society of what it means to put the person and the family at the center of economic life

The legal landscape has changed. The bottom line is that, on Aug. 1, acting on your belief that marriage is between a man and a woman could get you punished in Minnesota.