The chasm between the Muslim world and the West yawns still wider as a result of the furor over Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. Some of the protest, particularly in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, was government instigated; some was fomented by radicals keen to whip up animosity against the West.

In his State of the Union address on Jan. 31, President Bush called for greater civility in our public debates about national policy. Our differences cannot be allowed to harden into anger, he said. While it may prove to be an elusive goal, a restoration of civility in our public debate could have i

As a cardinal, Joseph Ratzinger made clear his desire for the church to find a way to convey to the world the joy at the heart of the Gospel. Now as Pope Benedict XVI, he has, with his first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love), taken a decisive step in that direction. What is fresh about the

Immigration issues continue to roil the waters of Congress, with the president himself caught in their turbulence. Mr. Bush traveled to the Southwest in November to promote again his plan for a guest worker program. This time, however, his reform proposal contains some harsh elements intended to soo

There has been a notably wide variety of interpretations from Catholic leaders of the Vatican instruction, published on Nov. 29, concerning the admission of gay men to orders. It is difficult, therefore, to determine exactly what effect it will have on future applicants to seminaries and religious o

Before the passage, on Nov. 15, of the new document from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on lay ecclesial ministry, there was debate in the bishops’ meetings over whether the term ministry should be used to refer to laypersons working on behalf of the church. The debate endeddramatical