Wednesday’s News & Ideas - 7/1/2026
- Religious freedom in health policy?
- Q&A with Christian Wiman
- Pope promotes Italian nun
- Banning social media for kids
- Traditionalists defy pope
- Attention activism
Trump administration puts religious freedom at heart of US health policy
The Guardian: Critics say the new focus could reshape LGBTQ+ healthcare, abortion access and vaccine policy.
“There was love, and then there was suffering”: A Q&A with Christian Wiman*
The New York Times: Wiman spoke about his journey from faith to atheism and back and about living with an incurable cancer and being on the verge of death more than once
Pope promotes Italian nun to top migrant role in his first major appointment of a woman to Holy See
The Associated Press: Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday made his first major appointment of a woman to the Holy See hierarchy, promoting Italian Sister Alessandra Smerilli to head the Vatican office responsible for migrants, the environment and development.
Majority of Americans support banning social media for kids under 16
Pew Research Center: Nearly six-in-ten U.S. adults support banning anyone under the age of 16 from using social media sites, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
Defying Pope Leo XIV, traditionalists go ahead with bishop consecrations in Switzerland
The Associated Press: A group of traditionalist Catholics directly defied Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday by consecrating four bishops without his consent, dismissing the resulting excommunications and saying the break with the church was necessary to defend the Catholic faith.
The Spark
Big Tech is “fracking” your attention. These activists are fighting to get it back.
Mother Jones visited the School of Radical Attention.
*access is limited for nonsubscribers
