Wisdom Wednesday | August

Welcome to a Do-It-Yourself edition of Wisdom Wednesday for August 7-28. To accommodate AUSCP staff schedules, Wisdom Wednesday was prepared in late July for August. You are invited to check out some typical sources for news, commentary and opinion on faith, society and politics. Some Catholic views, some others, are included. The list of sources is not exhaustive, nor ranked in value or in frequency of citation. Wisdom Wednesday will return “live’ on September 4.

RNS — Religion News Service

This news agency covers religion, ethics, spirituality and moral issues. Wikipedia says it publishes news, information, and commentaries on faiths and religious movements to newspapers, magazines, broadcast organizations and religious publications. It was founded in 1934. Some examples of opinion articles: Why mandating biblical texts in public schools may backfire, and how JD Vance’s ascent marks the rise of the Fantasy Generation

The Associated Press

The AP is an American not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City, with 3,300 employees. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are distributed to its members, major U.S. daily newspapers and radio and television broadcasters. The AP regularly updates its collection of articles on the 2024 U.S. Election.

Today’s American Catholic

Today’s American Catholic is a journal of inquiry, reflection, and opinion on matters of ecclesial, civic, and spiritual life. TAC aims to promote religious dialogue and deepen the faith of our readers. TAC is produced by lay Catholics who believe in a pluralistic world and who share the conviction that tradition should develop in response to the needs of our time. TAC is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in Connecticut. Some examples: God in the brothel by Michael Ford, and Seeking Inspiration by Gene Ciarlo.

Black Catholic Messenger

In Fall 2020, the Black Catholic Messenger was formed among a group of Black Catholic laypeople and allies who agreed that the Catholic media landscape was missing something: an online publication for Black Catholics. “Secular writers often do not understand the nuances of the faith and the Catholic Church, and non-Black Catholic writers typically do not understand the nuances of Black culture and—when relevant—the Black Church.” An example: Opinion: White Jesus isn’t always right, by Ashley Paul, August 30, 2022.

The Christian Science Monitor

The Monitor, is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles both in electronic. Founded in 1908. The newspaper has been based in Boston since its establishment. The Christian Science Monitor has won multiple Pulitzer Prizes and other journalistic accolades in its history.

The Christian Century

The Christian Century is a Christian magazine based in Chicago. Considered the flagship magazine of US mainline Protestantism, the monthly reports on religious news; comments on theological, moral, and cultural issues; and reviews books, movies, and music. An example follows, regarding Donald Trump: Empathy for the Demagogue (it might elicit the title of a Rolling Stones’ recording, “Sympathy for the Devil.”)

Vatican News

The official news portal of the Vatican and the Holy See, serving as a source of information about the activities, pronouncements, and events related to the global Catholic Church and the operations of the Holy See. The Dicastery for Communication, which oversees Vatican News, is responsible for supervising various communication channels within the Holy See. These channels include Vatican Radio, L’Osservatore Romano (the Vatican’s daily newspaper), and Vatican Media. See coverage of Pope Francis, or general Vatican news.

Crux

Crux Now claims to be “the very best in smart, wired, and independent coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church,” adding, “In an increasingly polarized world, where spin can be more important than facts, Crux aims to be an objective voice, offering the best news and analysis from journalists with decades of experience on the Vatican and religious beat.” Crux was founded as a project of The Boston Globe in 2014, but has been fully independent since March 2016.

Commonweal

Commonweal is the oldest independent lay Catholic journal of opinion in the United States. Free of any church control or agenda, Commonweal strives to be a truly independent voice, faithful to the Catholic tradition but always questioning the unexamined assumptions of church and society alike. An example: What’s Behind America’s Loneliness Crisis?

The National Catholic Reporter

A progressive national newspaper in the United States that reports on issues related to the Catholic Church. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, NCR was founded by Robert Hoyt in 1964. In addition to regular straight news reporting, NCR collects items in certain categories, to wit, Election, Climate and Women Religious.

• NCR Election news
• NCR Earthbeat – Climate Crisis
• Global Sisters Report

The National Catholic Register

A Catholic newspaper founded on November 8, 1927, by Matthew J. Smith as the national edition of the Denver Catholic Register. The Register’s current owner is the Eternal Word Television Network, Inc. A conservative viewpoint.

Catholic News Service

An American news agency owned by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops that reports on the Catholic Church. The bishops shut down the agency’s domestic service based in Washington, D.C., on 30 December 2022, but CNS continues to provide reports concerning world events and Catholic news. CNS reports are accessible at member-clients only, e.g., NCR, America, diocesan newspapers, etc.

The Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Agency – NOT Catholic News Service — is a news service owned by Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) that provides news related to the Catholic Church to a global anglophone audience. It was founded in 2004 in Denver, Colorado, United States as the English section of the worldwide ACI Group, which publishes the Spanish-language news service ACI Prensa. It was acquired by EWTN in 2014, and now based in Washington, D.C. A conservative service.

Pew Research

Pew Research probes religion, cultural issues, guns, Americans who don’t want children, and other topics in day-to-day news. Comments about childless cat owners from JD Vance might be balanced with the report that the U.S. fertility rate reached a historic low in 2023, with a growing share of women ages 25 to 44 having never given birth.

Columnists and writers

Following are some opinion columnists and news reporters you may discover, from various faith viewpoints – Catholic, Jewish and secular.

John L. Allen Jr. – Crux

The editor of Crux, specializing in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic Church. He has written eleven books on the Vatican and Catholic affairs, and also is a popular speaker on Catholicism both in the United States and internationally.

Jeffrey Salkin – Martini Judaism

Jeffrey Salkin, a rabbi, says, “I started writing my award-winning opinion column, “Martini Judaism: for those who want to be shaken and stirred,” because I believe that this is religion’s true role – to challenge us. Now, I bring that message to a podcast, through Religion News Service.”

Salkin recently wrote, “God loves you. Deal with it.” He says “God loves you” is not how the world views Judaism. It’s not how Jews view Judaism or God either.” When he googled the phrase, “I got 440,000,000 hits — all of them, so far as I could tell, on Christian web sites.”

Massimo Faggioli – Signs of the Times

Massimo Faggioli is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for La Croix International, and contributing writer to Commonweal.

Ruth Graham – The New York Times

Ruth Graham is a national reporter, based in Dallas, covering religion, faith and values for The Times. A sample column is included below: “Piety and Profanity: The Raunchy Christians Are Here.” She says, “In the Trump era, a surprising number of evangelicals are rejecting modesty and turning toward the risqué.”

Michelle Boorstein – The Washington Post

Michelle Boorstein’s path to her dream job as a religion reporter began as a kid, trying to make sense of a kosher Jewish home that had three sets of dishes: meat, milk and Chinese food. Her career included a decade with the Associated Press that took her from Providence to Phoenix to Afghanistan. Her introduction to the Post and the DMV area was as a roaming feature reporter covering outside-the-Beltway Virginia. A sample column on Trump’s close call is included.

About Wisdom Wednesday

Wisdom Wednesday is a weekly feature prepared for members and friends of the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, and also available to the general public. We respect intellectual property rights and provide links to original sources.