Because of the recent synod on the new evangelization, and because I study Catholic religious education, the question of how best to converse with the wider world about faith is often on my mind. This is especially true when I am on Facebook. I have a variety of friends: some believers, some unbelie
El Salvador is not your typical tourist destination. It has been wracked by earthquakes and frequently finds itself in the way of devastating hurricanes. It is also the smallest, most densely populated and most violent nation in all of Latin America. So why have so many North American Christians mad
The visit to Cuba last March by Pope Benedict XVI focused attention on the emergence of the Catholic Church as an influential actor in that island nation. If, by comparison, the 1998 visit of Pope John Paul II was heralded as a watershed in church-state relations in Cuba, the more recent visit refle
Growing up Protestant and Republican in Kansas, I began life as a political conservative. But when I was in college, John F. Kennedy changed that. He and Pope John XXIII opened the door to the Catholic Church for me, and for most of my adult life I considered myself a Catholic political liberal. I a
If you’re wondering why the European Union budget talks collapsed in November, you might look to the euro, the common currency of more than half of the E.U.’s member states, to gain a clue. I don’t mean the currency’s market position but the actual printed paper. All the euro
The Way of the Kingdom Re “Defending Hyde,” by Richard M. Doerflinger (11/19): It’s good to hear people pushing back on the “war on women” rhetoric. It is such an empty, manufactured slogan concocted by political consultants. There is a serious problem in the pro-choi