Recent outreach articles and essays:

Recovering the lost virtue of humility for the common good: The Hill: April 2024

Even experts should be humble: Psyche: March 2024

What Faustus and Voldemort Can Teach Us About Humility: Circe Institute: February 2024

Ben Franklin's Model of Humility: Bergen Record: January 2024

What Dante teaches about humility: Salt+Light Media: November 2023

St. Augustine's Struggles with Pride: Villanova University Augustine Institute: November 2023

A Humbled Catholic Church?: Religion News Service: October 2023

Ignatius of Loyola and Humility: National Catholic Reporter: July 2023

Benedict XVI and Lessons for the Next Retired Pope: Fordham Center on Religion and Culture: January 2023

Jesuit Fr. John O'Malley: In gratitude to a historian who always asked, "So what?": National Catholic Reporter: September 2022

Teaching Lessons for a Skeptical Church:   Fordham Center on Religion and Culture: January 2022

History is an Exercise in Humility: Fordham Center on Religion and Culture: November 2021  

  Humility is America's Missing Virtue: Newark Star-Ledger-  NJ.com: October 2020

    Praising God and Common Sense: Newark Star-Ledger-  NJ.com: with Brooks R. Susman: April 2020

    Papal Saints: Salt+Light Media: October 2019

    Scarlet Fever: To Combat Clericalism, Reform Seminaries:  Commonweal: April 2019 (co-author with C. Colt Anderson)

    Why Americans must rise to the challenge of an aging population:  Washington Post: March 2019

    Catherine of Siena: Word Among Us: November 2018

    Elizabeth and Zechariah: Elder Patrons of Patience and Praise:  CatholicDigest.com: November 2017

    Catholics and Lutherans 500 Years Later: Philly.com: Oct. 2017

    Bridging the Generation Gap: St. Anthony Messenger: August 2017

    Embrace the Courage of Moderates: Philly.com: July 2017

    A Catholic Reads the Bible: Crux: June 2017

    Joan of Arc: Liguorian: May-June 2017

    Secrets of the Knights Templar: St. Anthony Messenger: April 2017

    Honoring our Elders: A Cautionary Tale from Ancient Greece:  Bergen Record: March 2017   

    Simeon and Anna: Senior Citizen Prophets: Salt+Light Media: January 2017

    Intolerance is Not an American Value: Ask the Founding Fathers:  with Brooks R. Susman: Bergen Record: January 2017

    Pope Francis: A Radical Moderate Reformer: Crux: December 2016

    What's a cardinal?: Religion News Service: November 2016

    Pope Francis and the Wisdom of the Elderly: Crux: Sept. 2016

    Pope Francis, Donald Trump, and a Wall: Newark Star-Ledger - NJ.com: February 2016 (co-author with Frank Argote-Freyre)

    Spotlight and a changing Catholic landscape: Christian Century  (Then & Now blog): February 2016 

    The Legend of Pope Joan: St. Anthony Messenger: January 2016

    Deconstructing Pope Francis' humble leadership style: Newark Star-Ledger/NJ.com: September 2015

    Another prophetic pope: Christian Century (Then & Now blog): September 2015

    Decades of Healing: Jewish-Catholic Relations 50 Years after Nostra Aetate: Liguorian: September 2015

    Books Change: To Kill a Mockingbird: Christian Century (Then & Now blog): April  2015

    Pope Francis: Reality is superior to ideas: Christian Century (Then & Now blog): March 2015

    Pope Francis channels Yves Congar's True and False Reform: The Tablet: January 2015

    Don't believe everything you hear--there's only one pope: Reuters: Nov. 2014 (and cited by Religion News Service)

    Crusader Bible exhibit at JP Morgan Library: America: Nov. 2014

    Vatican synod was about the meaning of church: Christian Century (Then & Now blog): November 2014

    A Changing Church: Nothing To Be Afraid Of: Commonweal: August 2006 

        (here because of its relevance to Vatican synod on family: 2014-2015)

    John XXIII and John Paul II: Our Newest Saints: St. Anthony Messenger: April 2014:  (reprinted in The Catholic Advocate: Archdiocese of Newark)

    A Jesuit Pope with a Franciscan Heart: St. Anthony Messenger: Dec. 2013

    The Outsiders: Sixteenth-Century Lessons in Reform: Commonweal: May 2013

    After Benedict: A Look Ahead: Liguorian: April 2013

    First impressions of Pope Francis: CNN.com: March 2013

    A Pope's Progress: Assessing Benedict's Legacy: America: March 2013