May 2009

The scandal over the expenses of British politicians has gone on long enough says the Archbishop of Canterbury who has warned that the systematic humiliation of MPs over their expenses is a threat to democracy in Britain Writing in The Times on Saturday Dr Rowan Williams said the daily press re

More on our online Culture page nbsp Here s a smart and funny review about a smart and funny show 30 Rock written by Jake Martin a Jesuit scholastic who used to be a stand-up comic nbsp nbsp nbsp Martin no relation other than being my brother Jesuit explains why the show is more than

William Saletan has a nuanced nbsp article on Slate about what Obama s visit to Notre Dame the source of seemingly unending controversy nbsp Here s Saletan Smart pro-lifers understand the multidimensionality of public opinion That s why in his introduction of Obama Notre Dame s president t

Mr Deal Hudson has taken exception to my blog post yesterday which focused on an article of his that questioned why Israel insists on being designated as a Jewish state He now writes Winters is obviously unaware that I have and do unequivocally support a Jewish state Alas Mr Hudson is argu

Dick Cheney rsquo s mien is too distinct to be uncultivated and so distinctly sinister watching him defend his administration rsquo s record on torture yesterday was a bit like watching a trailer for a summer horror flick The banality of the image ndash the starched white shirt the flat monot

Cambridge MA I recently wrote a remembrance of a very old swami Swami Sarvagatananda of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society This time I write of a middle-aged swami who is by all accounts still very active in his ministry nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp The occasion is that recently I was sent a copy of

There were many in the congregation at today s Mass of Installation of the new Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols who smiled at the moment when his predecessor Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O Connor handed him the crozier They remembered how in 2000 it was the then Bishop Nichols who handed t

Dan Gilgoff of US News has the inside story on the reception into the Catholic church of Newt Gingrich nbsp nbsp nbsp An excerpt The moment that finally convinced me to convert was when Benedict XVI came here to the United States and Callista in the church choir sang for him at the vesper

For the past forty years since the very inception of the Moral Majority the Religious Right has organized itself around certain core themes They are pro-life pro-capitalism remember the old Soviet Union was still around and pro-Israel In 1980 The Rev Jerry Falwell and a group of American