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Voices

Judith Valente, a regular contributor to NPR and "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly," is a journalist, poet and essayist. She is the author of Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith, named best spirituality book in paperback for 2014 by the Catholic Press Association and one of the three best spirituality books by Religion Newswriters Association. Her book, The Art of Pausing, was runner up for the Catholic Press Association book award in 2014.

Ms. Valente began her work as a staff reporter for The Washington Post. She later joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal, reporting from that paper's Chicago and London bureaus. She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, first in the public service category as part of a team of reporters at The Dallas Times Herald in the 1980s. In 1993, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the feature writing category for her front page article in The Wall Street Journal chronicling the story of a religiously conservative father caring for his son dying of AIDS.

Arts & CultureDispatches
Judith Valente
Wendell Berry and St. Catharine’s have teamed up to pass on a farming legacy to future generations.
St. Benedict's will be profiled on 60 Minutes this weekend.
Dispatches
Judith Valente
The secret to St. Benedict’s success? It operates more like a monastery than a school. The main subject taught there is community.
Dispatches
Judith Valente
Justice Sotomayor told the students not to assume that people who disagree with you are somehow intrinsically flawed.
Signs Of the Times
Judith Valente
The state is playing a major role in three canonizations.
Signs Of the Times
Judith Valente
Archbishop Cupich is calling for a ban on assault weapons, stricter background checks
HANDS UP. Demonstrators confront police officers during a protest in reaction to the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, Ill., on Nov. 27, 2015.
Politics & SocietyFeatures
Judith Valente
More than 2,800 people were shot in Chicago last year, and by December 2015 there had been 417 gun homicides, up almost 20 percent from the previous year.
Father David Kelly and friends at Precious Blood Center in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood
Dispatches
Judith Valente
Father David Kelly is a leading proponent of a concept called “restorative justice.” It’s an approach that includes bringing perpetrators and victims together, and involving their families and community in a joint effort to repair the harm done by a crime.
Dispatches
Judith Valente
Someone is shot in Chicago on the average of every three hours. There have been more than 400 shooting deaths in the city so far this year, up 18 percent already from last year.
Dispatches
Judith Valente
Many images stick in my mind of the public outrage expressed since Chicago police released video of one if its officers pumping 16 shots into an African American teen There is the one of multiracial protestors marching along Chicago rsquo s showcase shopping district the Magnificent Mile linking a
Signs Of the Times
Judith Valente
Ordinary citizens can also take action, ask how much workers will be paid.