In Pulpits and Pews, Catholic Churches Urge Compassion for Immigrants; The New York Times, November 16, 2025

Mark Bonamo, Dave Philipps and Pooja Salhotra, The New York Times ; In Pulpits and Pews, Catholic Churches Urge Compassion for Immigrants

"In humble rural churches and tall urban cathedrals across the country this weekend, Catholic priests and parishioners reflected on the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown. Some said that the roundup of hundreds of thousands of people, which has disproportionately affected Catholic congregations full of immigrants, goes against Christian teachings.

Just a few miles from Our Lady of Grace, said Father Santora, about 1,000 immigrants were being held in a detention center. “This is not what Jesus Christ would want,” he told his flock. “It’s immoral.”...

As the administration has stepped up its deportation efforts, though, the Catholic Church has gotten louder in its criticism. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on Wednesday issued a special message — the first since 2013 — opposing what it called the “indiscriminate mass deportation of people.”

“We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants,” the bishops wrote. “We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care.”

At the end of their message, they said, “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement."...

“Any institution which does something against the value of human life is worthy of the church making a statement,” Father Flores said."

Pope Leo Doesn’t Want to Be the Anti-Trump. But He Is.; The New York Times, November 16, 2025

DAVID FRENCH, The New York Times; Pope Leo Doesn’t Want to Be the Anti-Trump. But He Is.

"Serving the most marginalized is fundamental to the Christian faith. By one count, more than 2,000 scriptural passages mandate or endorse service to the poor and the work of justice.

In May, just after the pope’s election, I wrote that the most important American in the world was no longer named Donald Trump. The president has less than four years left at the center of the international stage. The pope will present a global moral witness for years to come, and it’s a moral witness that is fundamentally incompatible with the cruelty and corruption of Trumpism.

If you examine the new pope’s pronouncements, there is a consistent through line. He defends human dignity and condemns government brutality. In addition to his defense of the human rights of migrants, he’s decried Russian abuses in Ukraine, and he’s called for a cease-fire, hostage release and compliance with international humanitarian law in Gaza.

His concern for human dignity extends to the world of technology and commerce as well. On Nov. 7, for example, he posted on social media: “Technological innovation can be a form of participation in the divine act of creation. It carries an ethical and spiritual weight, for every design choice expresses a vision of humanity. The Church therefore calls all builders of #AI to cultivate moral discernment as a fundamental part of their work—to develop systems that reflect justice, solidarity, and a genuine reverence for life.”

The pope’s comment drew an immediate rebuke from Marc Andreessen, a venture capitalist and Trump supporter, who posted (and then deleted) a meme mocking the pope’s statement.

Each of the pope’s statements is part of a consistent ethic of life. I love the Catholic writer Mark Shea’s description of what this ethic means — that “all human beings, without any exception whatsoever, are made in the image and likeness of God and that Jesus Christ died for all human beings, without any exception whatsoever. Therefore each human person — without any exception whatsoever — is sacred and is the only creature that God wills for its own sake.”"

In Memoriam: The Sudden Demise of the AMA Journal of Ethics — A great loss for physicians, the profession, and the public; MedPage Today, November 14, 2025

Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH, and Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, MedPage Today; In Memoriam: The Sudden Demise of the AMA Journal of Ethics — A great loss for physicians, the profession, and the public

"Bioethics is a small field, but we punch above our weight when it comes to writing. Professional journal articles, reports, and policies are arguably our primary written products, since the main job in bioethics is to help clinicians and others navigate ethical challenges in their work. But we also write for the public, in forums like blogs and editorials, since many of the issues we write about have broader implications. Consequently, learning to write for publication is a key skill for bioethicists, and professional journals are critical for the field. One particular journal -- the AMA Journal of Ethics -- has been a stalwart in giving a voice to newcomers to the field...

Why Did the AMA Kill its Journal of Ethics?

The AMA is the nation's largest and most influential medical professional organization, and its Journal of Ethics held the mission of, "illuminating the art of medicine" by being an open access journal, freely available to all, with no advertising, focusing each month on an important ethical issue in healthcare, and, most uniquely perhaps, each issue was edited by health professional trainees and their mentors. Only the AMA, with its mission, resources, and reach, could have produced this journal.

One possible reason for its elimination might be financial. But if financial returns were to be a metric for success, then the AMA JoE had a bad business model from the start: no fees, no subscriptions, no advertising. As Kao argued, a guiding premise for the journal was that "ethics inquiry is a public goodopens in a new tab or window" -- hence no fees or subscriptions and no ads (avoiding conflicts of interest is critical in ethics inquiry).

For the AMA, the business case for AMA JoE could never have been about profit; rather, it was about demonstrating the AMA's integrity, altruism, and service to physicians from very early in their careers. The journal aimed to build goodwill, bolster the AMA's reputation, improve ethical deliberation within the profession and, most importantly, entice students and trainees to engage seriously with the organization. By these metrics it has succeeded. Over its more than 25 years in existence, the journal drew innumerable medical students, residents, and fellows into the AMA. It also provided a crucial training ground for young people in medicine who wanted to learn about bioethics and about writing and editing, and it helped build the credibility and presence of the AMA and its ethics group nationally and internationally.

So, if it wasn't about profit, perhaps it was the political environment. The journal encouraged medical trainees to explore some of the most contentious challenges facing medicine and society, so it inherently provided opportunities for controversy. Issues this year have addressed themes of private equity in medicineopens in a new tab or window, regret and surgical professionalismopens in a new tab or window, and evidence-based design in healthcareopens in a new tab or window. Meanwhile, issues in prior years have addressed some currently inflammatory topics, like ethical issues related to transgender surgical careopens in a new tab or window and segregation in healthcareopens in a new tab or window. Remarkably, the journal still very rarely caused public relations problems for the AMA, perhaps because its editorial staff were highly qualified professionals, but also because its approach to controversy was civil, inquisitive, and exploratory.

As Kao wrote in a farewell essayopens in a new tab or window this month: "For over a quarter of a century, the AMA Journal of Ethics has striven to publish insightful commentaries, engaging podcasts, and provocative artwork that help medical students, physicians, and all health care professionals reflect on and make sound ethical decisions in service to patients and society." In fact, the journal often demonstrated exactly this spirit of respectful discussion about challenging ethical issues that we need to rekindle today, making its loss even more tragic and difficult to explain.

AMA JoE: A Value-Added Offering

In a recent opinion piece in MedPage Today, "Medical Societies Are Facing an Existential Crisis,opens in a new tab or window" the authors exhorted medical societies, facing declining memberships and engagement among young physicians, to reimagine their role by offering "free basic memberships supplemented by value-added services [that] could attract early-career physicians who might otherwise remain disengaged." AMA JoEwas exactly this type of value-added offering that not only served students and trainees, but also educators across health professions. Anecdotally, many health profession educators we know routinely use pieces from AMA JoE in their teaching and now lament its demise.

The AMA has reportedly promisedopens in a new tab or window to keep the historical content of the journal accessible on the AMA JoE website. This is no consolation for the students, residents, and fellows who were working on future issues, but it means the legacy of the journal will live on. Someday, we'd like to believe it might even be revived.

For now, we mourn the loss of AMA JoE for the field of bioethics. Even more, we mourn what the AMA's sudden elimination of its ethics journal might mean for physicians, the profession, and the public."

opens in a new tab or window(AMA JoE) -- has been a stalwart in giving a voice to newcomers to the field.

This May Be the Cruelest, Most Senseless Thing Trump Has Done A conversation with Atul Gawande about the human toll of the dismantling of foreign aid.; The Bulwark, Jonathan Cohn, November 16, 2025

JONATHAN COHN , The Bulwark; This May Be the Cruelest, Most Senseless Thing Trump Has Done

A conversation with Atul Gawande about the human toll of the dismantling of foreign aid.

"SECRETARY OF STATE MARCO RUBIO was indignant in May when, at a hearing before Congress, lawmakers asserted that the Trump administration’s cuts to international aid were killing people.

“No one has died,” Rubio insisted.

It was not an especially believable claim, even then. But death from disease and starvation can be difficult to detect quickly. And it had been less than five months since Trump had signed an executive order halting global assistance—or since then-adviser Elon Musk had tweeted gleefully about “feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”

That was a reference to the United States Agency for International Development, which John F. Kennedy established in 1961 to help the world’s neediest people and make America safer by promoting stability and generating goodwill abroad. Trump and his team decided to dismantle the agency because it was supposedly too “woke” or too wasteful—or, maybe, because it was an easy first step in their radical downsizing of the federal government.1

Among those most alarmed was Atul Gawande, the surgeon and award-winning writer who had overseen USAID’s global health programs during the Biden administration. He spent much of the winter and spring imploring Trump allies in Congress to save the agency, citing its long history of bipartisan support, including from then-Senator Rubio. As hopes for a reprieve faded, Gawande turned to spotlighting the consequences—partly to build a case for rescuing what could be rescued and rebuilding what couldn’t, and partly just to bear witness.

“They’re trying to make the loss of life invisible,” Gawande told me this week, “they’re trying to deny the reality, and the first task is making the invisible visible.”

The impetus for our conversation was a new documentary called Rovina’s Choice that Gawande has produced together with the New Yorker. The documentary is about a Sudanese refugee in Kenya and her attempts to get help for her daughter, Jane, who is suffering from severe malnutrition.

The film depicts the physical toll on Jane and others, including how a loss of ability to regenerate skin cells leads to painful, burning fissures that won’t heal—and to a literal thinning of skin that makes it increasingly difficult to maintain body temperature or prevent infection. But another wrenching part of the story may be the emotional toll on Rovina and her entire family, and the excruciating decisions she must make to protect them all.

None of this has to happen, as Gawande explained in our conversation. Starvation can seem like one of those intractable, hopeless realities governments can’t change. But the development of “Plumpy’Nut”-style paste and deployment of aggressive community outreach efforts have transformed food assistance over the past two decades, possibly saving more than 1 million lives in 2023 alone, according to UNICEF.2

The tragedy—and human toll—of abandoning those advances are an important theme of Rovina’s Choice. It’s also what he and I discussed during our interview. You can watch the whole thing on YouTube and read some excerpts below.3"

Netherlands WWII cemetery removes displays honoring Black soldiers; Military Times, November 14, 2025

Claire Barrett, Military Times; Netherlands WWII cemetery removes displays honoring Black soldiers

[Kip Currier: Reading this story, I was struck by how important it is to raise our awareness of people and events whose stories and contributions often are either unknown or not as well-recognized by more people as they should be. 

That anyone would learn about the service and contributions of Black American soldiers in the Netherlands during WWII and be troubled that their stories are included in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten is an outrage. 

How dare the Heritage Foundation -- and even more, the Trump 2.0 administration that has codified these kinds of historical purges -- strive to erase this history and these Black American military members and their service from this Dutch museum.

Thank you to all those who are sounding the alarm about another example of this kind of historical censorship.]

[Excerpt]

 "The Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten, the only American military cemetery in the Netherlands, has quietly removed panels displaying the contributions of Black American soldiers during WWII, sparking outrage from Dutch and American citizens.

One of the two displays featured an overall history of Black American military personnel fighting a double V campaign — victory at home and abroad — while the other told the story of George H. Pruitt, a Black soldier in the 43rd Signal Construction Battalion who drowned a month after the war’s end while attempting to save a comrade’s life in a German river.

The two panels were added to the visitor center in September 2024 after the American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S. government agency that oversees the cemetery, received criticism from families and historians for not including the contributions of Black service members and their experiences fighting in the Netherlands.

At the time of publishing, ABMC did not respond to requests for comment from Military Times. The commission, however, told Dutch news outlets that one panel is“off display, though not out of rotation,” although a second panel was “retired.” 

The panels were reportedly rotated out in early March, one month after President Donald Trump’s executive order terminated diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives across the federal government.

The same month the panels were removed, The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, contacted the ABMC for its supposed failure to comply with Trump’s anti-DEI initiatives...

Among such men was 1st Sgt. Jefferson Wiggins of the 960th Quartermaster Service Company, one of more than 900,000 Black men and women who served in the U.S. military during WWII.

Wiggins and the men of the 960th QSC were tasked with the grim job of burying American dead in Margraten.

What was once a fruit orchard would become the final resting place for some 8,300 U.S. soldiers, including 172 Black servicemen. In 2009, Wiggins recounted to historian Mieke Kirkels how the work was done under horrific conditions, often with only rudimentary tools like pickaxes and shovels to dig the graves. 

“There was a permanent arrival of bodies, the whole day long. Sundays included, seven days a week,” Wiggins recalled. “I find it difficult, even now, to read in the paper that soldiers ‘gave their lives.’ … All those boys in Margraten, their lives were taken away.”"

‘Trump is inconsistent with Christian principles’: why the Democratic party is seeing a rise of white clergy candidates; The Guardian, November 15, 2025

David Smith , The Guardian; ‘Trump is inconsistent with Christian principles’: why the Democratic party is seeing a rise of white clergy candidates

"He grew up on a farm in Indiana, the son of a factory worker and eldest of five children. He studied at Liberty, a Christian university founded by the conservative pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, and recalls wearing a T-shirt expressing opposition to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Two decades later, Justin Douglas is running for the US Congress – as a Democrat.

He is among around 30 Christian white clergy – pastors, seminary students and other faith leaders – known to be potential Democratic candidates in next year’s midterm elections, including a dozen who are already in the race. While stressing the separation of church and state, many say that on a personal level their faith is calling them into the political arena...

Douglas is a county commissioner looking to unseat Republican Scott Perry in Pennsylvania’s 10th district. But he was previously the lead pastor of a growing church that allowed LGBTQ+ individuals to participate fully in its community; over the course of a year, this developed into a huge bone of contention and in 2019 Douglas eventually lost his licence. He had to find a new house and go from one job to three jobs including driving an Uber and CrossFit coaching. He started a new church that is still operating today.

Douglas recalls: “I paid the price for standing with the LGBTQ+ people. I would do it again. It taught me that doing what’s right is often costly but always necessary, and everyone deserves to be safe, respected and fully included. That’s not a religious belief. It’s a human belief that I have.”

James Talarico, a Texas state representative and a 36-year-old part-time seminary student who has amassed a sizable social media following – has become an unlikely standard-bearer in the Democrats’ 2026 Senate primary.

In a series of social media posts, he deploys scripture to champion the poor and vulnerable while castigating Republicans for what he casts as their drift towards Christian nationalism and corporate interests. He asked in one: “Instead of posting the Ten Commandments in every classroom, why don’t they post, ‘Money is the root of all evil’ in every boardroom?”"

Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology; The Fresno Bee, November 15, 2025

Andrew Fiala , The Fresno Bee; Pope Leo XIV’s important warning on ethics of AI and new technology

"Recently, Pope Leo XIV addressed a conference on artificial intelligence in Rome, where he emphasized the need for deeper consideration of the “ethical and spiritual weight” of new technologies...

This begins with the insight that human beings are tool-using animals. Tools extend and amplify our operational power, and they can also either enhance or undermine who we are and what we care about. 

Whether we are enhancing or undermining our humanity ought to be the focus of moral reflection on technology.

This is a crucial question in the AI-era. The AI-revolution should lead us to ask fundamental questions about the ethical and spiritual side of technological development. AI is already changing how we think about intellectual work, such as teaching and learning. Human beings are already interacting with artificial systems that provide medical, legal, psychological and even spiritual advice. Are we prepared for all of this morally, culturally and spiritually?...

At the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence, we need a corresponding new dawn of critical moral judgment. Now is the time for philosophers, theologians and ordinary citizens to think deeply about the philosophy of technology and the values expressed or embodied in our tools. 

It will be exciting to see what the wizards of Silicon Valley will come up with next. But wizardry without wisdom is dangerous."

We analyzed 47,000 ChatGPT conversations. Here’s what people really use it for.; The Washington Post, November 12, 2025

Gerrit De Vynck

 and 

Jeremy B. Merrill

, The Washington Post; We analyzed 47,000 ChatGPT conversations. Here’s what people really use it for.

 OpenAI has largely promoted ChatGPT as a productivity tool, and in many conversations users asked for help with practical tasks such as retrieving information. But in more than 1 in 10 of the chats The Post analyzed, people engaged the chatbot in abstract discussions, musing on topics like their ideas for breakthrough medical treatments or personal beliefs about the nature of reality.

Data released by OpenAI in September from an internal study of queries sent to ChatGPT showed that most are for personal use, not work. (The Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.)...

Emotional conversations were also common in the conversations analyzed by The Post, and users often shared highly personal details about their lives. In some chats, the AI tool could be seen adapting to match a user’s viewpoint, creating a kind of personalized echo chamber in which ChatGPT endorsed falsehoods and conspiracy theories.

Lee Rainie, director of the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University, said his research has suggested ChatGPT’s design encourages people to form emotional attachments with the chatbot. “The optimization and incentives towards intimacy are very clear,” he said. “ChatGPT is trained to further or deepen the relationship.”"

Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back; The Guardian, November 13, 2025

Robert Reich , The Guardian; Ultra-rich media owners are tightening their grip on democracy. It’s time to wrest our power back

"The richest man on Earth owns X.

The family of the second-richest man owns Paramount, which owns CBS, and could soon own Warner Bros, which owns CNN.

The third-richest man owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

The fourth-richest man owns the Washington Post and Amazon MGM Studios.

Another billionaire owns Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

Why are the ultra-rich buying up so much of the media? Vanity may play a part, but there’s a more pragmatic – some might say sinister – reason.

If you’re a multibillionaire, you might view democracy as a potential threat to your net worth. Control over a significant share of the dwindling number of media outlets would enable you to effectively hedge against democracy by suppressing criticism of you and other plutocrats, and discouraging any attempt to – for example – tax away your wealth...

As the Washington Post’s slogan still says, democracy dies in darkness. Today, darkness is closing in because a demagogue sits in the Oval Office and so much of the US’s wealth and media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few people easily manipulated by that demagogue.

We must fight to get our democracy back. Supporting the Guardian is one good place to begin."

Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage; The Guardian, November 14, 2025

George Monbiot, The Guardian ; Dark forces are preventing us fighting the climate crisis – by taking knowledge hostage

"An epistemic crisis is a crisis in the production and delivery of knowledge. It’s about what we know and how we know it, what we agree to be true and what we identify as false. We face, alongside a global threat to our life-support systems, a global threat to our knowledge-support systems."

Cleveland attorney’s use of AI in court filings raises ethical questions for legal profession; Cleveland.com, November 12, 2025

Advance Local Express Desk

David Gambino, cleveland.com

 , Cleveland.com; Cleveland attorney’s use of AI in court filings raises ethical questions for legal profession

"A Cleveland defense attorney is under scrutiny in two counties after submitting court filings containing fabrications generated by artificial intelligence — a case that’s prompting broader questions about how lawyers are ethically navigating the use of AI tools in legal practice.

William Norman admitted that a paralegal in his office used ChatGPT to draft a motion to reopen a murder conviction appeal. The document included quotes that did not exist in the trial transcript and misrepresented statements made by the prosecutor."

AMA ethics journal shutters after 26 years; Retraction Watch, November 13, 2025

Retraction Watch; AMA ethics journal shutters after 26 years 

"The American Medical Association will cease publication of its ethics journal at the end of this year. 

The AMA Journal of Ethics, an open access, peer-reviewed journal was founded in 1999 under the name Virtual Mentor. 

“The loss of the AMA JoE will be most acutely felt by medical students and trainees, since it had a unique production model that included them in the process,” said Matthew Wynia, a physician and bioethicist at the University of Colorado whose work has been featured in the journal and who previously led the AMA Institute for Ethics.

The journal  publishes monthly issues on a specific theme, such as private equity in health care, antimicrobial resistance, palliative surgery and more. The journal also covered ethics in publishing and research, including a 2015 article titled “How Publish or Perish Promotes Inaccuracy in Science—and Journalism” written by Retraction Watch’s cofounder Ivan Oransky...

The journal’s website will remain online with all content freely available, “in keeping with our guiding premise that ethics inquiry is a public good,” Audiey C. Kao, editor-in-chief of the AMA Journal of Ethics and vice president of the AMA’s Ethics Group for more than two decades, wrote in a statement on the journal’s website. “With humility, I am hopeful and confident that this archived journal content will stay evergreen for years to come.”

The AMA did not provide a reason for the decision to shutter the journal."

Chris Christie: Keep Sports Betting Legal; The New York Times, November 14, 2025

Chris Christie, The New York Times; Chris Christie: Keep Sports Betting Legal

Mr. Christie served as governor of New Jersey from 2010 to 2018. After leaving office, he served as an adviser to DraftKings until 2021.

"It’s time we recognize that legal sports betting brings with it effective regulation that protects fans, teams, leagues and sports themselves — and work together to protect and build on that success."

In Louisiana, casinos can’t make political donations, but sportsbooks can, ethics board says; Louisiana Illuminator, November 14, 2025

JULIE O'DONOGHUE, Louisiana Illuminator; In Louisiana, casinos can’t make political donations, but sportsbooks can, ethics board says

"Louisiana prohibits casino companies and executives from making state political contributions, but that same ban doesn’t apply to sports gambling operations, according to the Louisiana Board of Ethics. 

A sport betting company and its senior management can still make political donations, even if the business is a subsidiary of a larger gambling enterprise prohibited from doing so. 

The ethics board issued an advisory opinion last week to American Wagering Inc., saying the company, as well as its officers and directors, can legally give to political candidates. The activity is allowed even though the business, which goes by the name Caesars Sportsbook Louisiana, is owned by the gambling conglomerate, Caesars Entertainment Inc."

Trump admin to ban book from Yosemite National Park, says author; SFGate, November 13, 2025

Olivia Hebert , SFGate; Trump admin to ban book from Yosemite National Park, says author

"A prominent Bay Area author said one of his books has been quietly flagged at Yosemite National Park as part of a March 2025 federal directive aiming to remove and revise “negative” information relating to American history.

Naturalist and illustrator Obi Kaufmann wrote in a Facebook post this week that his 2019 book, “The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource,” was identified by park officials as restricted under President Donald Trump’s executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” Kaufmann said the flagging means that while Yosemite bookstores will not pull copies from the shelves, they will no longer purchase new copies of his book. 

“The State of Water” explores what has led to California’s current water crisis, “exposing a history of unlimited growth in spite of finite natural resources,” according to its publisher, Heyday Books. In the book, Kaufmann cautions against further developing California’s waterways, highlighting that conserving and restoring the ecosystem is not only a moral issue but a matter of survival."

‘This Is the War Against Human Nature’ Paul Kingsnorth argues technology is killing us - physically and spiritually.; The New York Times, November 14, 2025

 

Hosted by Ross Douthat

Produced by Victoria Chamberlin

; ‘This Is the War Against Human Nature’: Paul Kingsnorth argues technology is killing us - physically and spiritually. 

"A lot of people, myself included, are worried about where technology is taking the human race, and especially how we can stay human in an age of artificial intelligence.

But my guest this week thinks we’re not worried enough. That some kind of apocalypse is all but inevitable — if it isn’t already upon us. That what’s needed now are strategies of resistance, endurance and escape.

And he practices what he preaches, having retreated to the west of Ireland with his family — the better to keep them out of the clutches of what he calls the machine.

But he’s come back to us, for a time, bearing a prophetic message.

Paul Kingsnorth is a novelist and a critic, an environmental activist and a convert to Eastern Orthodoxy. His new book is “Against the Machine: On the Unmaking of Humanity.”