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CATHLEEN KAVENY Teach Us to Care… …and not to care “I really don’t care. Do you?” These words were emblazoned on a jacket that Melania Trump infamously wore to visit a Texas refugee...

The Trump Courtâ€™s agenda (September 2024)

An artist sketch of the Supreme Court justices during their 2023–2024 term CATHLEEN KAVENY The Imperial Judiciary How four recent Supreme Court decisions may harm our quality of...

Priests and the Right to Privacy (May 2023)

SHORT TAKES CATHLEEN KAVENY Chasing the Unchaste Do priests have a right to privacy? In March 2023, the Washington Post detailed how a group of Catholic conservatives spent millions of...

Ancient, but ever new (July 2021)

CATHLEEN KAVENY Ancient, But Ever New The unsettling experience of reading St. Augustine in Latin Princeton University’s Department of Classics just announced that its majors will no...

Thinking Latinly (February 2021)

COLUMN CATHLEEN KAVENY Thinking Latin ly Remembering Reginald Foster Reginald Foster, OCD, the celebrated Latinist who died in December, committed one act of civil disobedience in the course of...

Connected by coronavirus (July 2020)

COLUMNS CATHLEEN KAVENY Blurring Boundaries The coronavirus reminds us that all of nature is connected. The coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the way Americans live, both...

The fullness of time (March 2020)

COLUMNS CATHLEEN KAVENY The Fullness of Time Encountering death as a daughter—and a theologian My mother died last summer— after a long illness, as the saying goes. Her mind was fierce, sharp,...

What the culture warriors get wrong (December 2019)

CATHLEEN KAVENY Bridge Burners What the culture warriors get wrong In October, a South Carolina priest refused to give Communion to Democratic presidential candidate Joseph Biden because he...

Putting Justice First (June 2019)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Putting Justice First WHAT BENEDICT'S LETTER ON ABUSE GETS WRONG The debate about Benedict XVI's recent intervention on the sex-abuse crisis has focused on his account...

Catholic Moral Theology in Crisis? (March 2019)

Cathleen Kaveny Catholic Moral Theology in Crisis ? NOT SO FAST Every few years, someone complains about the state of Catholic theology. A few years ago, Paul Griffiths used his plenary address...

Not the Mafia (February 2019)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Not the Mafia WHY RICO DOESN'T APPLY TO THE CHURCH Does the clergy sex-abuse crisis make the Catholic Church a continuing criminal enterprise analogous to the Mafia or...

Not Just Sin-Spotters (October 2018)

SHORT TAKES Cathleen Kaveny Not Just Sin-Spotters THE CHANGING ROLE OF CATHOLIC MORAL THEOLOGIANS Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church (CTEWC), a network of over 1,400 moral...

Both Prudential & Indisputable (September 2018)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Both Prudential & Indisputable WHY DID THE POPE CHOOSE TO CONDEMN THE DEATH PENALTY AS 'INADMISSIBLE'? On August 1, 2018, the Vatican announced a change to the...

After the Irish Referendum (August 2018)

SHORT TAKES After the Irish Referendum What It Means for Ireland Christopher Budzisz As a political science professor in Iowa, I have a front-row seat to that ballyhooed preliminary round of...

Succor Punch (March 2018)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny Succor Punch HOW NOT TO BE OVERWHELMED BY REQUESTS FOR DONATIONS As I confronted the barrage of charitable solicitations assaulting my mailbox this past December, a...

Policing the Communion Line (December 2017)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny Policing the Communion Line WHY SACRAMENTAL RIGORISM BACKFIRES Many conservative Catholics remain opposed to relaxing the canonical prohibition against granting...

Seventh-circuit shakedown (October 2017)

Cathleen Kaveny Seventh-Circuit Shakedown MYRA SELBY DESERVED HER DAY IN THE SENATE When law professor Amy Coney Barrett was nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit by...

Voting for People, Not Just Policies (October 2016)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny Voting for People, Not Just Policies THE IMPORTANCE OF A CANDIDATE'S CHARACTER & COMPETENCE As the 2016 election season comes to a close, we can identify one clear...

Bookending a Culture War (May 2016)

Cathleen Kaveny Bookending a Culture War IT'S TIME FOR CATHOLICS IN BOTH PARTIES TO FIND A NEW WAY FORWARD As Barack Obama began his historic tenure as the first African-American president of the...

Vigilante Injustice (January 2016)

Cathleen Kaveny Vigilante Injustice THE RIGHT TO LIFE & THE RULE OF LAW The Friday after Thanksgiving, Robert Lewis Dear killed three people and wounded nine others at a Planned Parenthood...

Bring Back The Gallows? (September 2015)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Bring Back the Gallows? THE SUPREME COURT'S CRUEL & UNUSUAL RULING Reading between the lines of the U.S. Supreme Court’s majority decision in Glossip v. Gross, it would...

Mercy for the Remarried (August 2015)

ARTICLES Mercy for the Remarried What the Church Can Learn from Civil Law Cathleen Kaveny When Pope Francis announced his plan for last October's Extraordinary Synod on the Family, he insisted...

Playing the Princess (May 2015)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Playing the Princess THE LIMITS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM To say that Indiana's new Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) set off a firestorm would be an understatement....

Married to the Past (November 2014)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Married to the Past WHAT LAW CAN AND CANNOT DO In “Commitment to Marriage,” an open letter issued before last month’s Extraordinary Synod on the Family, prominent...

That '70s Church (October 2014)

Cathleen Kaveny That ’70s Church WHAT IT GOT RIGHT Unpacking some boxes after a recent move from South Bend, Indiana, to Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, I came across my confirmation stole, which I...

'A Minefield' (August 2014)

SHORT TAKES Cathleen Kaveny 'A Minefield' THE TROUBLING IMPLICATIONS OF THE HOBBY LOBBY DECISION The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, where religious exemptions to...

Caught in the Gap (June 2014)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny Caught in the Gap Too Poor For Subsidized Health Insurance, Not Poor Enough For Medicaid In 2012, the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act's requirement that...

The ACLU Takes On the Bishops (January 2014)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny The ACLU Takes On the Bishops TRAGEDY AT A CATHOLIC HOSPITAL LEADS TO A MISGUIDED LAWSUIT On November 29, 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal...

The Big Chill (October 2013)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny The Big Chill HUMANAE VITAE DISSENTERS NEED TO FIND A VOICE Over the past quarter-century, Catholics who support Huma-nae Vitae have done a superb job articulating the...

Reading The Tea Leaves (April 2013)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny Reading the Tea Leaves why the Supreme court is unlikely to block the contraception mandate Many of the groups challenging the contraception mandate in the...

Is the Government 'Defining Religion'? (January 2013)

Cathleen Kaveny Is the Government ‘Defining Religion’? The bishops’ case against the HHS mandate The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to oppose the Affordable Care Act...

The Single-Issue Trap (September 2012)

ELECTION 2012 The Single-Issue Trap What the Bishops Voting Guide Overlooks Cathleen Kaveny In 2007 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued Forming Consciences for Faithful...

The Bishops & Religious Liberty (June 2012)

Cathleen Kaveny ur First, Most Cherished Liberty" reflects the bishops' deep ambivalence about whether they prefer the protection afforded a religious minority in the United States or whether they...

Catholic Kosher (June 2012)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Catholic Kosher IS THE BAN ON CONTRACEPTION JUST AN IDENTITY MARKER? Testifying before Congress about religious liberty last February, William Lori, soon-to-be...

Regret is not Enough (January 2012)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Regret Is Not Enough WHY THE PRESIDENT SHOULD READ PAUL RAMSEY n late December, President Barack Obama signed the National Defense JL Authorization Act into law,...

More than a Refuge (November 2011)

Cathleeen Kaveny More than a Refuge why immigration officials should steer clear of churches Is it morally acceptable for agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—or local...

Can We Talk About Abortion? (September 2011)

Cathleen Kaveny In the spring of 2009, the University of Notre Dame was under siege. The university had just announced that President Barack Obama, who is a strong defender of abortion rights,...

Sick Minds (March 2011)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny Sick Minds WHAT CAN WE DO TO PREVENT ANOTHER TUCSON? For the past fifteen years, my sister Meg Kaveny has worked with the homeless in Portland, Oregon. Many of them are...

A First Step? (January 2011)

SHORT TAKE Cathleen Kaveny A First Step? BENEDICT & CONDOMS When the German journalist Peter Sewald recently asked Pope Benedict XVI whether the Catholic Church was "opposed in principle to the...

A Horrific Crime (December 2010)

COLUMNIST Cathleen Kaveny A Horrific Crime BUT IS EXECUTION THE ANSWER? After deliberating for four days last month, a Connecticut jury imposed the death penalty on Steven Hayes, one of two men...

8 Long Goodbye (October 2010)

COLUMNISTS Cathleen Kaveny Long Goodbye WHY SOME DEVOUT CATHOLICS ARE LEAVING THE CHURCH Several Catholics I know and respect have recently chosen to worship in other Christian churches as a...

A Darkening (May 2010)

Columnist Cathleen Kaveny A Darkening WHY A CHURCH SCANDAL DOES MORE HARM THAN THE NEW ATHEISM On the Wednesday after Easter, nine hundred Notre Dame students serenely walked into the...

'Peaceful & Private' (March 2010)

Cathleen Kaveny ‘Peaceful & Private’ MonTAnA’S SuPrEME CourT rulES on ASSiSTEd SuiCidE Over the New Year holiday, the attention of prolife activists was focused on...

Truth or Consequences (January 2010)

Columnist Cathleen Kaveny Truth or Consequences IN IRELAND, STRAYING FAR FROM THE MENTAL RESERVATION If Blaise Pascal, the seventeenthcentury mathematician and...

Risk and Responsibility (November 2009)

Columnist Cathleen Kaveny Risk & Responsibility WHY INSURANCE IS THE WRONG WAY TO THINK ABOUT HEALTH CARE It now seems clear that political pressures have transformed President...

Moving Beyond the Culture Wars (September 2009)

Columnists Cathleen Kaveny Moving Beyond the Culture Wars WHY A BIOETHICS COUNCIL NEEDS DIVERSITY Writing in the August 14 issue of Commonweal (“End of Discussion”), the...

Rules Are Not Enough (June 2009)

Columnist Cathleen Kaveny Rules Are Not Enough WHY JUDGES NEED EMPATHY When President Barack Obama said he judged "empathy" to be a desirable quality in a Supreme Court appointee, he set...

The Right to Refuse (May 2009)

Do health-care providers have a right to refuse to be involved in medical procedures that they believe to be immoral? If so, how broad is that right? These are the questions raised by the...

Be Not Afraid: Catholic colleges & 'The Vagina Monologues' (March 2009)

Over much of the past decade, a celebrated and notorious play has set off a fierce debate at Catholic colleges and universities. The debate pits the values of Catholic identity against...

Bad Law: FOCA in focus (January 2009)

Commonweal . January 30, 2009 1 Bad Law What FOCA Is—and Isn’t Cathleen Kaveny I in participate “forced be could predicted, he workers, fever pitch during the 2008 presidential tions for...

Teacher or Remedy: What is the purpose of the law? (November 2008)

Commonweal . November 7, 2008 baloo Columnists Teacher or Remedy created when the Wattses split up. To do aged...and that James Watts ought not to “First we had a trial marriage, then we...

Bad Evidence (September 2008)

Commonweal . September 12, 2008 Columnists Bad Evidence consider indefensible tactics, had never actually occurred, other than on the TV sets of those watching Fox-T.V.’s terrorism...

A Flawed Analogy (June 2008)

Columnists Cathleen Kaveny A Flawed Analogy ProCHoiCe PoliTiCianS & THe THirD reiCH As the 2008 presidential elec tion cycle heats up, the politi cal and moral rhetoric...

The Right Questions (May 2008)

Cathleen Kaveny The Right Questions CaThoLiC CoLLegeS & PoP CuLTuRe Predictably, spring brought the annual tussles about whether or not The Va gina Monologues ought to be...

The 'New" Feminism? (March 2008)

Cathleen Kaveny The ‘New’ Feminism? JoHN pAUl ii & THE 1912 ENCYClopEDiA This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Mulieris digni tatem, Pope John Paul II’s apostolic letter on...

Justice or Vengeance (February 2008)

Cathleen Kaveny Justice or Vengeance iS THE DEATH PENALTY CRUEL & UNUSUAL? Does the three-drug cock tail used by the majority of states that impose the death penalty violate the...

Coopted by Evil? (November 2007)

Cathleen Kaveny Coopted by Evil? ABORTION & AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL How involved can you become in someone else’s wrongdoing without becoming morally tainted by it? This is a...

The Bishops & the 2008 Election (September 2007)

Columnist The Bishops & the 2008 Election Cathleen Kaveny LESSONS FROM AUSTRALIA While lecturing in Australia in June, I was overcome by a sense of déjà vu. The Australian newspapers...

Model Atheist (July 2007)

Cathleen Kaveny Model Atheist JEFFREY STOUT & THE CULTURE WARS For Christian cul- years now, ture warriors such as Richard ]\ John Neuhaus and James ] i Dobson have been railing ~ against...

Regulating Abortion (May 2007)

Cathleen Kaveny Regulating Abortion WHAT DID THE ROBERTS COURT DO? In Gonzales v. Carhart, the ~ " ~ : \ Supreme Court upheld the i ~ l j ~ \ ~ \ Partial Birth Abortionact ~ * ' _ \ of 2003, a...

Forever Young (February 2007)

Cathleen Kaveny Forever Young THE TROUBLE WITH THE "ASHLEY TREATMENT' e "Ashley Treatment"--a eries of medical procedures performed at Seattle Children's Hospital in 2004 on a profoundly...

Salvation & "The Sopranos' (February 2007)

Salvation & 'The Sopranos' Redemption in New Jersey? Cathleen Kaveny p.. e',l r Ia i n Romans 8:22, St. Paul says that the "whole creation has been groaning" while awaiting redemption. He...

Contraception, Again (December 2006)

v,I Cathleen Kaveny Contraception, Again WHERE CAN WE FIND COMPROMISE? :atholics believe that the basic requirements of morality are accessible in principle to all human beings through...

Undue Process (November 2006)

Cathleen Kaveny Undue Process THE EVISCERATION OF HABEAS ~ , In mid-October, President ~.~\ George W. Bush signed the | i [ a l \ Military Commissions Act ~,...i~ ~ . . . ~ i ~ of 2006 whmh...

Family Feuds (September 2006)

t i 0 6 Family Feuds will be new fissures between priests and the laity. Sociologists tell us that a small group of "JPII Catholics" see the world as a battleground between the...

Could the Church Have Gotten It Wrong? (July 2006)

Columnists Cathleen Kaveny Could the Church Have Gotten It Wrong? LET'S LOOK AT THE FACTS John Noonan recounts in detail in A Church That Can and Cannot Change (University of Notre Dame...

When Does Life Begin? (March 2006)

Columnists Cathleen Kaveny When Does Life Begin? TWO PROLIFE PHILOSOPHERS DISAGREE Christian think tank. Paul Ramsey (1913-88) was a pioneer in the field of bioethics. He was also one of my...

Perverted Logic (February 2006)

ability to pay. Even immigration status can't trump treatment: in 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives balked at pro- posed legislation that would exclude il- legal aliens from the protection...

Letter vs. Spirit (December 2005)

Cathleen Kaveny Letter vs. Spirit WHY THE CONSTITUTION NEEDS INTERPRETING ~ When discussing Supreme Court nominees, President t ~ ' } . = "~\~i~ George W. Bush has long . \ repeated the mantra...

Why Prolife? (November 2005)

g 4 Cathleen Kaveny Why Prolife? IT'S ABOUT PEOPLE, NOT ABSTRACTIONS Prolife Web sites regularly display the faces of adorable infants and small children. This is a savvy move....

The Martyrdom of John Roberts (September 2005)

Cathleen Kaveny The Martyrdom of John Roberts CATHOLIC SQUABBLING, THEN & NOW John Roberts came from a so1 ~ cially prominent and finanL~ ~':~\ cially comfortable family. :~ He attended...

Either/Or? (July 2005)

Cathleen Kaveny Either/Or? CATHOLICISM IS MORE COMPLEX We Americans are attracted to dualistic views of the world. Our most popular entertainment features White Hats and Black Hats, the...

The Church & Benedict XVI (May 2005)

{-q ~5 0 ~9 10 The Church & Benedict XVI What Can We Hope For? Cathleen Kaveny I have met Pope Benedict XVI only once. It was seventeen years ago, when I was a graduate student at Yale....

Crime or Tragedy? (March 2005)

Cathleen Kaveny Crime or Tragedy? MURDER & SUICIDE AT VILLANOVA On January 20, 2005, Villanova University dedicated a memorial to the late Professor Mine Ener, director ~ ~ of the...

Remember the Mormons (January 2005)

Cathleen Kaveny Remember the Mormons THINKING ABOUT THE NATURE neW activists on either side of the gay-marriage debate have paid much attention to the nineteenth-century campaign to...

YOUNG CATHOLICS (November 2004)

After the Scandal YOUNG CATHOLICS When labels don't fit Caihleen Kaveny In her book The New Faithful, Colleen Carroll asserts that young Catholics take a more conservative approach to matters of...

Unspeakable sins (November 2004)

OF SEVERAL MINDS CATHLEEM KAVENY UNSPEAKABLE SINS Why we need to talk about them Huring his tenure as cardinal archbishop of Boston, Bernard Law vigorously defended the position of the Catholic...

Watch your mouth (August 2004)

But James's ultimate concern seems to be the fragile unity of his community. Nothing short of bullets is more destructive of communal well-being and solidarity than destructive talk—even if it is...

WHAT WOMEN WANT Where theology, feminism & popular culture meet (November 2003)

WHAT WOMEN WANT 'Buffy', the pope & the new feminists Cathleen Kaveny Bn his 1995 Letter to Women, Pope John Paul II calls for a dialogue about the situation and challenges facing women. He...

FRIENDSHIP & DESIRE 'Will & Grace' & Augustine (September 2002)

FRIENDSHIP & DESIRE Augustine reviews 'Will & Grace' Cathleen Kaveny Will and Grace are the main characters in NBC's wildly successful sitcom about the relationship between a gay man of deliberate...

KAVENY, M. CATHLEEN

Kavler, Peter

Kawakami, K. K.

Kayal, Philip M.

Kaye-Smith, Sheila

Kazin, Michael

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