News

In defiance of some U.S. bishops, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi reportedly received communion during a mass presided over by Pope Francis on Wednesday for the celebration of the feast of St. Peter and Paul. The Catholic congresswoman is banned from receiving the sacrament in four U.S. dioceses due to her abortion rights stance.

Robert D. Cornwall reviews Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible by Dietrich Bonhoeffer with a new introduction from Walter Brueggemann. While Bonhoeffer was thoroughly trained in the historical-critical method of biblical interpretation, in his book on the Psalms he reads them as if they are Davidic in origin.

In this issue of A Public Witness, we introduce the likely Republican gubernatorial nominee in Illinois. Then we revisit previous examples of interparty primary meddling before warning about the potential dangers of fueling Christian Nationalism for partisan gain.

The Supreme Court on Monday sided with a football coach from Washington state who sought to kneel and pray on the field after games. The court ruled 6-3 for the coach with the court’s conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. The justices said the coach’s prayer was protected by the First Amendment.

After nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, is no more. In a decision Friday, the Supreme Court overruled both Roe, decided in 1973, and a 1992 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed the constitutional right to abortion. The ruling came in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

This week at the theologically conservative Presbyterian Church in America's General Assembly in Birmingham, Alabama, commissioners approved a motion to leave the National Association of Evangelicals – an umbrella organization of 40 evangelical Christian denominations.

Two priests, age 79 and 80, respectively, were shot to death in the small church on Cerocahui’s town square Monday (June 20), along with a tourist guide they tried to protect from a local criminal boss.

We travel back to 1962 to consider the Court’s case on prayer in public schools (including how Word&Way praised the ruling at the time). Then we return to the present to analyze the arguments in Carson v. Makin before peering into the future to consider where this dangerous trip might be taking us.

A film chronicling Martin’s ministry to LGBTQ Catholics — “Building a Bridge,” which was produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Martin Scorsese and premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival — is streaming now on AMC+. This comes as Martin launches an LGBTQ Catholic resource called Outreach, sponsored by America Media.

France’s top administrative court ruled Tuesday against allowing body-covering “burkini” swimwear in public pools for religious reasons, arguing that it violates the principle of government neutrality toward religion. While worn by only a small number of people in France, the head-to-ankle burkini draws intense political debate in the country.