Check out these recent articles from around the web:

‘This Economy Kills’: Catholics Shouldn’t Defend It by Anthony Annett: “Brooks—like his ideological comrade Paul Ryan—seems under the spell of libertarianism or market fundamentalism, an ideology that puts economic freedom first. This ideology insists that all market rewards are fairly and justly earned and that the government’s role in economic affairs should be severely restrained. And libertarians insist that the role of business is to maximize profit, typically equated with shareholder value….such an ideology—by detaching individual freedom from communal responsibility, elevating self-interest over solidarity, and upholding freedom from coercion over the universal destination of goods (which Pope Francis deems a golden rule of social conduct)—is utterly incompatible with Catholic social teaching.”

As Voodoo Economics Collapses in Kansas, Trump Takes It National by Jonathan Chait: “Many, perhaps most, conservative elites believe as a matter of principle that taxing the rich at higher rates is morally wrong. They consider the first-order effects of regressive tax cuts — the transfer of resources from the public fisc to “the makers” — desirable. Since most Americans do not approve of tax cuts for the rich, this requires them to focus on the alleged second-order effects. And it explains why they continue to support the policy even when those second-order effects continuously prove ephemeral.”

With Trump, we are not in a ‘pro-life moment’ by Michael Sean Winters: “I would submit, therefore, that this moment is not a “pro-life moment” as Pence and Anderson assert. It is, in fact, a moment of extreme peril for the pro-life movement. The concern is not only that everything Trump touches may be seen in a worse light for being associated with this man whose administration is going down in flames. It is that this man bragged, in the most vulgar terms, about his ability to seduce married women and displayed his misogyny in many different ways. He said he thought women who procure abortions should go to jail. If Mr. Trump is presented as a pro-life champion, the pro-life movement is about to be set back years, and we will have people like Pence and Anderson to blame for it.”

Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever by Josh Katz: “Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times.” Read More

Millennial editor Robert Christian has a new article at OSV:

In January, I marched at the annual March for Life. In April, I took to the streets of Washington, D.C. once again for the People’s Climate March. On both occasions, I was motivated by the same basic impulse: to stand up for human dignity and resist the throwaway culture that Pope Francis has denounced time and time again….

The pro-life movement is changing. The movement and the March will always have a particular focus on abortion, which is entirely appropriate, given the gravity of legal abortion. But there is a growing recognition that only a whole-life approach can truly address abortion and show an authentic, consistent commitment to protecting the lives and dignity of all people. Thus, marchers carried signs that mentioned not just the unborn, but supporting their mothers, paid family leave, migrants, the unemployed, food stamps, climate change, sexual assault, human trafficking, women’s rights, human rights, people with disabilities and more….

The environmental movement is also changing. At the climate march, people of faith were formally recognized and we marched under our own banner. Giant signs displayed Pope Francis’ quotes from Laudato Si’. Catholics urged their fellow citizens to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor. These were recognized as interdependent concerns that should motivate us all to support sustainable integral human development rather than being treated as competing agendas.

You can read the full article here.

Millennial writer Mike Jordan Laskey has a new article at NCR:

Familial love would be stronger than religious difference. This commitment never wavered. Between my two younger siblings and me, there were three baptisms, three first Communions and three Confirmations. Grandma was there for all nine.

Reminiscing about her with other family members since her death, I realized that as Mina’s family grew to be more and more diverse through the years, filled with people of different religions, races and sexual orientations, she never stopped welcoming and supporting. She remained close with her late husband’s relatives decades after his death.

The love I felt was felt by so many others, too. And it was so natural — I never felt out of place with her because I didn’t share her faith. Hospitality is just what she did. I remember being surprised as a kid to learn that Jews and Catholics have a tumultuous past, marred by anti-Semitic persecution and violence. That history was so far from my experience of mutuality and understanding.

In more recent years, Grandma came to a few different talks I gave as the Catholic speaker at events sponsored by the regional Catholic-Jewish Commission, including one about engaging youth in religion. I told my own story of growing in faith as a kid, starting with the baptism party, and then talking about powerful community service trips with my Catholic youth group. I shared how Grandma’s Seders taught me how Judaism shares with Catholicism a special commitment to the poor and vulnerable inspired by the way God led his chosen people out of slavery in Egypt, and how both traditions’ commitment to social justice had led me to my career.