THE CONVERSATION — The lockdowns that almost every state went into in order to combat the spread of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020 interrupted nearly every aspect of Americans’ lives. Businesses were shuttered, schools closed and social groups stopped meeting as scientists rushed to understand the pathways through which the virus spread. One of the most controversial parts […]

After learning about the prevalence of hunger and poverty in the world, several grades at St. John’s Catholic School in Brunswick cracked open books in hopes of helping families in need bridge the gap to a better life. “Read to Feed,” a read-a-thon event held at the school, resulted in over 500 hours of reading […]

Hundreds of Maine teens and children will have the opportunity to participate in a weeklong Catholic youth program dedicated to teaching the Gospel. Totus Tuus will be presented in 10 Maine communities during the summer. The program, organized by the Diocese of Portland’s Office of Vocations, leads participants on an age-appropriate encounter with the Catholic […]

THE CONVERSATION — As the coronavirus spread rapidly around the world last year, the United Nations warned that the economic disruption of the pandemic could result in famines of “biblical proportions.” The choice of words conveys more than just scale. Biblical stories of devastating famines are familiar to many. As a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, I […]

In the corner of the window above my kitchen sink, sits a box of tea, about the size of a pack of mints. ‘AZAWAD,’ read the letters printed across the front – a region in northern Mali and apparently one of the world’s earliest tea brands. Below, camels trek across a faded desert. I first […]