The Ministry of Hospitality
It can be lonely living by oneself in a small town, as I do. But I can always go to Wal-Mart and know that I will be met at the door by a smiling employee who will greet me with “Welcome to Wal-Mart” and give me a shopping cart and a flier with today’s specials.…
Electing for Hope: Good News From Guatemala
The alarm went off at 3:30 a.m. on Guatemala’s presidential election day in December 2003. Another electoral observer and myself, accredited by the Organization of American States, found our way through dense fog and a 35-degree chill to a local high school in the city of Quetzaltenango to mee
An Occupational Hazard
On my desk is a photograph of a large poster that had been crudely taped to the wall of a bakery in an Arab souk just inside the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem. The poster shows a Palestinian man crouching on the ground, his back against a cinderblock wall, his mouth contorted…
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Taking a subway from one island to another—that is something you can do only in a place like Manhattan. Manhattan itself is an island, and I was going from there to Roosevelt Island just across the East River. Coming up the long escalators from subterranean depths, I was stunned to see the riv
Letters
Letters
Unleash the Capitalists
How disillusioning to read your editorial Trading Jobs (4/5). I expected something better from a Jesuit publication than this stale diatribe on American capitalism.
To begin, let me compliment you on your initial observation on the outsourcing phenomenon. The loss of jobs due to their exportation is indeed a very small portion of the…
Editorials
A Bad Bet
George W. Bush is a high-stakes gambler. When the going gets tough, he is inclined to up the ante. Whether it is tax cuts, the prescription drug benefit, bringing democracy to the Middle East or sending astronauts to Mars, he reaches for the sky. His endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharo
Faith and Reason
Jesuit Karl Rahner was one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. But he was first and foremost a priest.
“Students who understood very little of his lectures told me that they attended because they ‘felt better’ about themselves in his presence. ‘This is a professor to whom I can confess,’ one said.”
Faith in Focus
Effortless Hope
We knew it was coming. Months before the recent release of the report of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on sexual abuse of minors by members of the Catholic clergy, my fellow seminarians and I were forewarned on two separate occasions that the findings would be disturbing. We were told tha
Books
Penelope’s Pen
Penelope Fitzgerald rsquo s family crops up often in her prose She alludes to her two Victorian grandfathers one the bishop of Manchester and the other of Lincoln to her uncle Monsignor Ronald Knox and to another uncle and aunt who spent their engagement in the 1890 rsquo s corresponding with
Singin With the Word
When The Wall Street Journal announced last year that Bob Dylan had lifted lyrics in his most recent album from an obscure Japanese author it came as no surprise to generations of Dylan fans who had long recognized him as music rsquo s most prolific borrower When ldquo Blowin rsquo in the Wind r
16 Months in Hell
Imagine this nightmare scenario On a beautiful day in Southern California you have just dropped off your children at school On your return just a block from your home a police car approaches and flashes its lights for you to stop When you do an officer handcuffs you and drives back to your ho
The Word
What’s New?
We seem to tire so easily of the ordinary in life Many of us are constantly looking for something new something exciting We want to be entertained by life and to have the latest of everything whether that means style electronic equipment or fame We are often taken in by the advertisements that
Columns
Phoning the Bullpen
On a mid-winter’s night in April, I parked myself in front of a television set to watch the Boston Red Sox begin their annual exercise in bitter frustration, only to find myself thinking about Colin Powell. The connection will become clear in a moment.The Boston Red Sox began the 2004 baseball
Faith
Jesuit Karl Rahner was one of the most influential theologians of the 20th century. But he was first and foremost a priest.
“Students who understood very little of his lectures told me that they attended because they ‘felt better’ about themselves in his presence. ‘This is a professor to whom I can confess,’ one said.”
News
Signs of the Times
Reactions Vary to Pope’s Comments on Feeding Although some see Pope John Paul II’s message at a recent Vatican conference as closing the book on the question of whether nutrition and hydration may be withdrawn from patients in a persistent vegetative state, others in U.S. Catholic health
Politics
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Culture
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Podcasts