Religion plays a central – and often under-reported— role in the lives of many Appalachians. At 100 Days in Appalachia, we are expanding our coverage of religion to look more deeply at how it shapes family, community and political life within the region. As part of this effort, we also […]
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It’s been a tough month for American Catholics. Court documents released in mid-August revealed more than 1,000 allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct by hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania over the last seven decades. Given the length of time that has passed, new criminal charges are unlikely for most of […]
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Jean Ripepi, 87, remembers her first mass at St. Anthony Church. The building had two wings separated by a bell tower and stood atop a hill overlooking downtown Monongahela. She was entering a new faith and a new marriage. Ripepi had been raised in the Polish Catholic Church — a […]
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This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The mass shooting on June 28 in Annapolis, MD, has renewed familiar concerns about America’s gun culture and gun policies. Yet this was not the only June shooting to make national headlines. Fox News and The Washington Post […]
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Sundays were for sermons. The question wasn’t whether or not you went, but rather which church you attended on those mornings. Even those who called themselves atheists usually sat quietly in a pew, even if just to pick apart the words spoken in the pulpit. Small town West Virginia, in […]
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“I know we can’t bridge it, but how do we help make it better?” That’s how journalist Salena Zito posed the question of how to approach a public reckoning with the ever-increasing ideological and cultural split between progressive metropolitan areas and conservative small-town America — as a malady of modern […]
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