Welcome to the First Things daily newsletter, your guide to the ideas and events shaping our shared moral, cultural, and religious life. Each article we publish continues the conversations First Things has led for thirty-five years.
Stay with us as we explore confession with Valerie Stivers and St. Patrick's Cathedral’s new art with John Byron Kuhner.
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From the November issue: When Valerie Stivers was about to enter the Catholic Church, it was only by accident that she learned it would be a sin if she, as a divorced woman, got married again. In fact, there was very little discussion about sin during her formation. And yet, she writes, “The most rewarding, intellectual, generative, and faith-deepening parts of my Catholic experience have involved engagement with dogmatic teaching on sin and the practice of confession—the strict Church, not the tolerant one.”
For further reading: Last year, Stivers shared her conversion story in her popular essay “Stay in My Heart” (June/July 2024). As the artistic, liberal child of atheists, the book Kristin Lavransdatter eventually led her to consider Catholicism.
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St. Patrick’s Cathedral is home to a new painting titled What’s So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding? John Byron Kuhner reviewed the piece, which depicts crowds of immigrants and first responders under the apparition at Knock, Ireland. Kuhner writes, “It is human, humane, and humanistic—that is its virtue. It is not effective at suggesting any other religious values.”
The painting is the latest renovation to the cathedral, which, Kuhner says, no longer feels a world away from Fifth Avenue. Its doors are open to the world, and the world has come in. Take that as you will.
For further reading: For more insightful cultural analysis from Kuhner, read his last article “ My Family and Other Gnostics” about the Durrell family. For more on the spirit of St. Patrick’s, read “ Praying Well at the End of the World” by associate editor Jacob Akey, a review of a book by a priest of the cathedral.
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Upcoming Events
- November 2, 2025: A Night of Poetry with Ben Myers | New York, NY. Register here.
- November 3, 2025: The 38th Annual Erasmus Lecture: In Praise of Translation with Bishop Erik Varden | New York, NY. Register here.
- November 11, 2025: The Future of Higher Education Lecture with Mark Bauerlein and Mark Regnerus | Irving, TX. Register here.
- January 9, 2026: Second Annual Neuhaus Lecture at the New College of Florida | Sarasota, FL. Details coming soon.
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Until next time.
VIRGINIA AABRAM
Newsletter Editor
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