Losers’ Vengeance
Gambling often produces sore losers. This past November, in the town of Sangla Hill in Pakistan’s Punjab Province, it served as the trigger for something worse: religious riots and violence against members of Pakistan’s minority Christian population. Yousuf Masih, a 40-year-old Christian
Clash of Civilizations or Crisis of Integration?
A Muslim youth in the garb of a suicide bomber protests the Muhammad cartoons outside Denmark’s embassy in London. The chilling image appears in the next day’s newspapers. The same young man then apologizes on television for offending the families of the July 7 bombing victims with his w
New Standards for Pastoral Care
Helping professionals, like social workers, psychologists, marriage and family counselors, have discipline-specific codes of conduct that offer guidance about confidentiality, conflicts of interest and boundary violations (e.g., dual relationships, sexual misconduct with clients, and the like). Thei
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
"Daily life in Baghdad became very hard after the 1991 Persian Gulf war, especially when the sanctions went into effect,” said Sattar, “and it has continued to be hard ever since.” Sattar is an Iraqi who is now in New York City pursuing a master’s degree in engineering.
Letters
Letters
Slowly But Surely
I read with interest your editorial about the Cardinal Newman Society, Measuring Catholic Identity (3/27). That organization does not seem to recognize the irony of choosing as their patron a holy priest who himself was the subject of much vilification and animus by persons not unlike those who make up the current membership…
Editorials
Hocking the Future
The United States has enjoyed an extraordinarily long period of economic growth with very little inflation. There have been setbacks caused by high oil prices, the attacks on 9/11 and the dot-com crash, but in general there have not been the wide swings from high inflation to deep recession that wer
Faith in Focus
Forsaken
Once, when Jesus was in Jerusalem, he went to the pool at Bethesda, near the Sheep Gate. The pool was reputed to have curative powers. There was always a crowd of the blind, the lame and the crippled waiting in anticipation of the moment when the waters would be “stirred” to do their healing work.…
Books
Values Over Rhetoric
One of my strongest primal memories is of the Knights of Columbus As far back as I can remember they were as present and as taken-for-granted as the Austin Boulevard Bus the Lake Street L and Pedersen rsquo s Ice Cream Store Commodore Barry Council of which my father was a member and once Grand
What Connects Us All
In his justly celebrated How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love With Poetry 1999 Edward Hirsch becomes both teacher and enthusiast We encounter a man at once passionate and informed his writing as infectious as it is instructive In his new release Poet rsquo s Choice Hirsch remains much the sam
Freedom’s Warriors
There is a master of American letters working in our midst today of whom not many readers are aware For more than 23 years the novelist Stephen Wright has written uncompromisingly and astutely about America in meticulously crafted prose and witty realistic dialogue that reflects the spiritual wan
The Word
Easter Affirmations
The two most important days on the church rsquo s calendar are Good Friday and Easter Sunday This is so because Jesus rsquo death and resurrection are at the core of Christian faith The early Christian confessions of faith embedded in the New Testament place these events front and center In fact
Current Comment
Current Comment
Junkyard BoundWhat is good for General Motors, quipped Charles Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower’s Secretary of Commerce, is good for the nation. As a former chairman of G.M., Wilson was not a disinterested party, but for much of the next half-century, as the auto giant and its employees prospered, so
News
Signs of the Times
Harassed Christians in India Get Morale BoostMembers of the small Christian community in India’s Rajasthan state expressed elation when hundreds of activistsincluding Muslims and secular groupsjoined them to protest the harassment of Christians. Up to 6,000 Christians and others marched silent
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts