As we enter the fifth year of our nation’s war in Iraq, I am deeply distressed by the state of the American military and by the rate at which our government and the citizenry at large are betraying those who volunteer to serve our country. There is a social contract between a country and those it
A monk I know, who called me while on his way to give a conference to a group of diocesan priests, hoped aloud that one of the younger priests would absent himself from the gathering. “He is so certain of his own corner on the truth and his own absolute allegiance to magisterial authority as he
The recent report of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities, reveals a disturbing ambiance of hedonistic self-indulgence and an alarming public health
My journey from childhood to prison, and my abrupt release from a near-life sentence for growing marijuana, is an unlikely one. I grew up in rural northwestern Kansas as one of eight siblings of Catholic parents. I am proud to say that I have a brother who has been a priest for close to 30 years. H
The best-known prayer among American Catholics, after the Our Father and the Hail Mary, may be the one to Anthony of Padua, which goes, Saint Anthony, Saint Anthony, please come around. Something is lost and cannot be found. How many times have you turned to the Portuguese-born Franciscan after
Matter for Reflection
Your advertisement that reads, Do you have a child or grandchild going to a non-Catholic college? Give them a Catholic education. Send them America. (4/9) has appeared numerous times over the past several years. As a Catholic ecumenist, I have always
Memorial Day dates to 1868 and General John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, who called for a day to honor fallen Union and Confederate soldiers. As on that occasion, this Memorial Day we pause to give thanks, grieve and consider the sacrifices that American soldiers have made