The just war tradition is fast becoming a contested field of ideas in Catholic circles. The growing division of the Catholic community on issues of war and peace was on clear display at the annual “Social Ministries” meeting in the nation’s capital (Feb. 24-27), sponsored by the U.

Its name evokes peace but Jerusalem is a city in constant turmoil where controversy often turns deadly In 1996 when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the Hasmonean tunnel under the Haram al Sherif the Muslim sanctuary above the Temple Mount more than two weeks of hard fighting between P

For Palestinians, Christmas 2000 was to have been a celebration not only of the second millennium of Jesus’ birth, in which they would play host to the Christian world. It also was to have marked the emergence of Palestine as a destination for world travel with Bethlehem as its center. The Wor

There was a time not long ago when neither religion nor politics was discussed in polite company These emotionally charged topics were taboo Today when people actually have time to take dinner together and linger long enough for real conversation talk of politics and religion may often be over

During the last tense years of South Africa rsquo s apartheid regime the University of Notre Dame awarded a number of fellowships to members of the South African clergy to study at the university During their stay they boarded at Moreau Seminary and the halls rang with their laughter Their laug

The front-page photos were an editor's delight. In one, a man kissed the locked doors of the Holy Sepulchre. In another, a pilgrim knelt in prayer before them. In a third, an Austrian nun, excluded from the Basilica of the Nativity, wept in Bethlehem's Manger Square as Palestinian police loo