A Thief in the Night
My oldest daughter was mugged last Saturday night. She was talking with two friends in the parking lot of a restaurant in Los Angeles before saying goodbye for the evening. Two young men approached her and asked her for a light, and as she offered her lighter, there was suddenly a gun at her head.…
The Francis Next Door
In the early 13th century, Francis of Assisi stood before Pope Innocent III and asked him to sanction a new way of life, which ultimately became a new religious order with a twist. The Franciscans would not be cloistered monks, but active brothers living in towns and countrysides, sustained by alms.
A Prediction Fulfilled
Some might find irony in the fact that at the time the National Pastoral Life Center was issuing a comprehensive report on the burgeoning numbers of laypersons serving in various parish capacities, the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops this past November was having difficulti
After the Tsunami, Peace
There is definitely a “peace dividend” to disaster relief, as I found in mid-December during my second visit to Banda Aceh, the large city in northern Sumatra (Indonesia) where over 118,000 lives were lost on Dec. 26, 2004. That was the day of the multiple catastrophes of a huge earthqua
Ruined for Life
"Ruined for life”—that is the humorously ironic phrase used of young women and men who give one or two years of their lives to service in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. The phrase was coined by Jack Morris, the Jesuit credited with having started it all—of whom more later. Althou
A New Impediment
Prohibiting men with certain characteristics from being ordained to the priesthood is nothing new in church discipline. More than 40 years ago, when I was still in the seminary, church law laid down a number of such impediments. According to the theology of the time, the office of the priesthood req
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Massive overnight snowfalls in New York City usually mean awakening to a preternatural stillness, with city streets silenced for the moment before the plows begin to clear away huge mountains of snow and the noise of midtown traffic returns. The near-blizzard of 2006, the greatest snowstorm recorded
Letters
Letters
Respectful Appreciation
In Aquinas in Africa (2/6), Thomas F. O’Meara, O.P., suggests that an African attitude toward technology and economic growth will influence how Africans think about Christianity. When I read this statement, it seemed to me that the opposite was true: that one’s fuller understanding of Christianity would influence how one regards technology and economic…
Editorials
Culture Clash
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.
Books
What to Tell the Kids?
In 1935 a 26-year-old Viennese Jew with a Ph D in art history but no job hastily penned Eine kurze Weltgeschichte f r junge Leser as part of a series called Knowledge for Children before fleeing to England where in time he became director of the Warburg Institute and the celebrated author of
City on Screen
Mel Brooks once said that the toughest and most interesting thing about making a movie was ldquo cutting out each of those tiny sprocket holes on the film strip so that the scenes don rsquo t jerk all over the place rdquo Pace Mr Brooks it is enlightening as well as comforting when a reader…
Shared Authority
In Active Liberty Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer offers an alternative to Justice Antonin Scalia rsquo s advocacy of text-focused statutory interpretation and a constitutional jurisprudence that takes its bearings from original intent Instead Breyer argues statutory interpretation should lo
The Word
The Rainbow
The Lectionary texts for the Sundays of Lent follow a somewhat different pattern from that of Ordinary Time The series of Old Testament readings develops the history of our salvation with reference to the theme of God rsquo s covenant with his people Israel The various Epistle texts help us reflec
News
Signs of the Times
First Lady and Pope Talk of Peace and ViolenceLaura Bush, wife of the U.S. president, and one of her 24-year-old twin daughters, Barbara Bush, met the pope at the Vatican on Feb. 9 during a brief stop in Rome on the way to the Olympics. After the meeting, she told reporters traveling with her that…
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts