A D.C. moment: With the start of June comes the suspense of Supreme Court rulings; we never know when a ruling will come down, but June is the final month of the court’s term and as usual, the justices have procrastinated until the last minute on some of the term’s biggest cases. We’re awaiting rulings on the Christian cake baker (argued in December), the travel ban, redistricting, public sector unions, sales taxes on internet retailers, and California laws regulating the speech of pregnancy centers. 

“Dear Kamel, We like you just the way you are. Happy Birthday … Love Joanne and Fred.” So reads a handwritten card to Kamel Boutros from Fred and Joanne Rogers, written the year before Fred Rogers died suddenly from stomach cancer at age 74.

Boutros has boxes of letters from Rogers and cassettes of voicemails of Rogers calling to check in on him. He is one of many people Rogers, the iconic host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, befriended, mentored, and prayed for away from the cameras.

A New York moment:

A New York moment: 

About 12 years ago film critic Joel Mayward—then a pastoral intern—googled “Christianity in films” and came across Image Journal’s Top 100 list of films from its Arts and Faith forum.

He decided to start working through the list, renting DVDs from a local video rental store. Several of the films near the top of the list at the time were written and directed by the Dardenne brothers, a Belgian directing, writing, and producing duo. Mayward became obsessed.

A New York moment: 

Monday was the city’s big fashion night, the Met Gala held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This year’s theme was plastered on the front of the museum: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.” The evening featured, of course, high profile celebrities dressed in sometimes unsettling tributes to Catholicism—the pop star Rihanna, for example, came dressed as a glittery pope. 

A New York moment: 

Recently I spent time at the Bronx Criminal Court for a story I was working on. Everyone should try sitting in a few hours of arraignment hearings at some point to better understand our criminal justice system. The hearings are typically open to the public.