Karen E. Park

Karen E. Park

Karen E. Park is a historian of American Catholicism and the co-editor of American Patroness: Marian Shrines and the Making of U.S. Catholicism (Fordham University Press, 2024). A former professor of theology and religious studies at St. Norbert College, she writes about Catholic history, sacred space and devotional life in the United States. Her work has appeared in many national outlets including Religion Dispatches, America and the Los Angeles Review of Books. She publishes the newsletter "Ex Voto."

By this Author

Slice of bread and a glass of water (Dreamstime/Pascal Deloche)

Paxton's 'Tofu Talarico' insult clashes with traditional Christian virtues

Whether James Talarico is vegan or eats Texas barbecue, the real question is: Why does a tradition that spent 2,000 years admiring fasting, abstinence and self-mastery now treat appetite as a sign of strength?

President Donald Trump bows his head during the National Prayer Breakfast Feb. 5, 2026, in Washington. (AP/Evan Vucci)

The divinization of Trump is precisely why the Church Fathers wrote the creeds

Once any embattled leader can be cast as savior, any comeback as resurrection, any survival as divine election, Christianity's central claim — that Christ is the unique mediator — loses its meaning.

Detail of an icon of St. Augustine at Christ the King Cathedral in Superior Wis. (OSV News/The Crosiers/Gene Plaisted)

St. Augustine is key to the difference between Pete Hegseth and Pope Leo

In the Christian tradition, the violent language found in the imprecatory psalms can never be separated from Jesus' command to love one's enemies. Scripture can never, as Peter Hegseth does, be marshaled to sanctify hatred.

The sun sets over the main building and Basilica of the Sacred Heart steeple on the campus of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind., Nov. 23, 2025. (OSV News/University of Notre Dame/Matt Cashore)

Catholic outrage at Ostermann Notre Dame appointment an intellectual and pastoral failure

"If papal teaching is invoked to defend the sanctity of life, it should also be invoked to model the intellectual seriousness Catholic moral reasoning demands," writes Karen E. Park.

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