Abortion and the Courts in Ireland
The buses in Dublin these days are displaying advertisements from the pro-life movement demanding a new constitutional referendum on abortion. The Taoiseach (prime minister), Bertie Ahern, has promised to meet that demand, but short of a political crisis that would force his hand, the odds in favor
Vicars in Chains
Ever since Seattle erupted into a free-trade fighting zone during the World Trade Organization’s 1999 meeting, the very scheduling of a global economic gathering has become a provocation to activists worldwide. What happened suddenly in Seattle has been transformed into rituals of resistance l
Confronting Evil on the Internet
Looking over the shoulder of the police detective at his computer monitor, I felt my stomach churn. He was posing as a 14-year-old girl in a chat room. Within moments, a strange man, age 42, was making a proposition. With so many positive media reports focused on the miracles of the Internet as a co
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
My Jesuit province is in the process of “discernment,” as St. Ignatius liked to say. We’re attempting to map out the future of the Society of Jesus in New England—praying together about where God might be calling us, considering new ministries and evaluating our traditional o
Letters
Letters
But Hey, Who’s Counting?
Just wanted to call to your attention a figure from the last 10 issues of America. Eighty percent (8 out of 10) of the first letters in the letters column were from religious.
Oops: just received the May 28 issue. Now it’s 9 out of 11! Interesting?
Jim Cullather
Editorials
Vouchers’ Ups and Downs
On his second working day in office, President George W. Bush presented what he called a blueprint for school reform. On May 23, the House by a vote of 384 to 45 passed an education bill that Education Secretary Rod Paige said was a great bipartisan bill.This diplomatic praise puffed up the legislat
Books
Bread of Life
This short but worthwhile book takes its title from Franklin Delano Roosevelt rsquo s 1941 State of the Union address By the third freedom after freedom of speech and freedom of worship the president meant freedom from want But as George McGovernformer senator and Democratic presidential nomine
A Common Standard Realized
The tale begins in the spring of 1945 when a war-weary world began to prepare for peace and dream of freedom The delegates of 50 nations who gathered in San Francisco that April forged a charter for the United Nations that pledged each nation to promote the rights of all individuals No one had y
Film
A Pearl of Great Price: Pearl Harbor
Sell everything to buy the “pearl of great price,” the Gospel tells us (Mt. 13:46). Disney did exactly that, mortgaging the Mouse House for upwards of $140 million to produce this year’s summer blockbuster, Pearl Harbor. It bought a pearl of pure plastic.No, “Pearl Harbor&rdq
Poetry
Jubilate Cecilia
For I will consider my daughter Cecilia.
The Word
Shaping Up
I never forget my visit to Kenya over 20 years ago I arrived in Nairobi after a long journey and received a kind welcome at the airport only to be sent on a perilous journey to the Gaba Institute in Eldoret I traveled along the winding roads of the Great Rift Valley in a matatu…
Advent in June
The solemnity of St John the Baptist is a prelude to the Lukan readings about to unfold in the remainder of Ordinary Time John the Baptist wears a multicolored coat in the New Testament He is a wild desert preacher dressed only in camel skin and eating locusts and wild honey who inaugurates a wi
Columns
The Accidental Voyeur
Being a health nut has its price, but I never bargained for anything like the most recent development. My local organic food co-op stopped stocking one of my favorite items, so I went searching on the Internet under the name of its distributor, Delicious Foods. The moment I typed in “delicious
Magazine
Letters
But Hey, Who’s Counting?
Just wanted to call to your attention a figure from the last 10 issues of America. Eighty percent (8 out of 10) of the first letters in the letters column were from religious.
Oops: just received the May 28 issue. Now it’s 9 out of 11! Interesting?
Jim Cullather
News
Signs of the Times
Weakland Asked to Stop Cathedral RenovationsThe Vatican has asked Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, O.S.B., of Milwaukee to suspend renovation of that diocese’s cathedral in response to complaints from critics of the project who hired a canon lawyer to press their case in Rome. The Vatican wants
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts