Rosa’s Fresh Pizza in Philadelphia has now given away more than 10,000 slices of pizza, using a unique “pay-it-forward” system where “customers can pre-purchase $1 slices for those in need.” The story is inspiring on a number of levels, illuminating the powerof business to channel the best of humanity toward plexneeds in new and unexpected ways, often quite spontaneously. The owner, Mason Wartman, left his job on Wall Street to start the restaurant, following his vocational aspirations and bringing a...

Members of the “Acton Club” of West Catholic High School Culture has either an overly optimistic view of youth culture, or an overly dour and depressing one. However, neither view is entirely true, nor are such disparate opinions very helpful. The unavoidable truth is this: younger generations will have to bear increasingly more difficult levels of financial, and societal responsibility in ing years. To put it mildly their future will not be an easy walk in the park. However, in...

Earlier this week the University of Oklahoma chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon was caught on video engaging in a racist chant. The video shows several men wearing tuxedos and riding on a charter bus singing that black students, which the men refer to with a racial slur, could never join their fraternity. The chant also alluded to lynchings. Language warning: The video below contains offensive and racist language. The reaction to this vile, disgraceful video was swift and, for the...

There has been much speculation regarding Pope Francis’ ing encyclical on ecology. Will he side with those who raise the alarm on climate change? Is he going to choose a moderate approach? Will the encyclical call for changes to help the poor? Commonweal’s Michael Peppard seems to think Cardinal Peter Turkson, the Ghanaian prelate and President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, has lifted the curtain on the pope’s ing encyclical. Cardinal Turkson gave a lecture last week,...

The United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women recently released a report that includes data on gender-based violence. Here are seven sets of figures on violence against girls and women that are based on their data: 1. Recent global estimates show that 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partnersexual violence in their lifetime. While there is some variation across regions, all regions have unacceptably high rates of violence against women....

Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) is celebratingitstwentieth anniversary. First Things, whose first publisher Richard John Neuhaus was a founding ECT member, is hosting a variety of reflections on ECT’s two decades, and in its latest issue published a new ECT statement, “The Two Shall e One Flesh: Reclaiming Marriage.” The first ECT statement was put out in 1994. But as recalled by Charles W. Colson, another founding member of ECT, the foundations of evangelical and Roman Catholic dialogue go back...

Charles Malik. Photo credit: LIFE Magazine. In today’s Acton Commentary, I highlight a little book by the Lebanese diplomat, philosopher, and theologian Charles Malik, Christ and Crisis (1962). With regard to its continuing relevance, I write, Malik would urge us to have the courage to take up our crosses today, each in our own capacities petencies, putting the life of the spirit first, not settling for easy answers and scorning all distractions. “There are three unpardonable sins today,” wrote Malik...

The way that a culture understands the nature of God shapes its conception of man, reason, and society, says Acton Institute Director of Research Samuel Gregg. Though this presents enormous challenges for the Islamic world, it also has significant implications for the sustainability of Western civilization: In 1992, the political scientist Samuel Huntington ignited a debate among scholars of politics and international affairs when he proposed that civilizational differences would be an increased source of conflict in a post-Cold War...

“No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible,” said Stanisław Jerzy Lec. Whether that is true in nature, it’s certainly seems to be true for many of the precious little snowflakes who find themselves, after making poor educational decisions, buried under anavalanche of student loan debt. Consider, for instance, this op-ed by Tad Hopp, a student in “his last semester in the MDiv program at San Francisco Theological Seminary.” Before we delve into what will be one of the worst...

One of our favorite coffee shops when we lived in Washington, D.C. in the 1980s was The Daily Grind. The name’s humorous wordplay about everyday work and the delicious fresh-roasted coffee made us smile. But too many of God’s people are not smiling as their alarms sound and they head to their daily tasks. Recent surveys reveal their deep dissatisfaction in their jobs, with few finding joy and significance in their efforts. Last year, Barna Group reported 75 percent of...