Autonomous Individualism
Time magazine’s person of the year was a mirror: Behold YOU. Yourself. You can do it. You did it. Be all you can be. YouTube. You are the star. It is a proclamation of pure, absolute narcissism. The world ends at my face. Me. My space. My autonomy. I rule my world. Perhaps the deepest…
Kofi Annan: Visionary and Victim
Kofi Annan, the quiet Ghanaian whose 10-year tenure as United Nations Secretary General ended in December, did more to challenge the thinking and prod the conscience of this unwieldy organization than any of his predecessors. Yet he left office wounded by controversy, pilloried in the U.S. Congress
More Than One Way of Dying
More than 33 million refugees and internally displaced people languish in the world today. A disproportionate percentage of them live in Africa. Most have been driven from their homes by armed strife. Such displacement is often overlooked in discussions of the duty to protect civilians in warfare. K
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Pope Benedict XVI’s late November visit to Turkey showed how quickly and thoroughly he has grown into his new role. In particular, he demonstrated his determination to realize his potential as a peacemaker. That role seemed to be suggested by his adoption of the name Benedict, reminiscent of P
Letters
Letters
Work to Do
Ah, the pity of it. I refer to Jolted by Affluence, by Thomas G. Casey, S.J., (11/27). The Island of Saints and Scholars is only a single generation removed from penury, the emigrant ship and coercive priests and bishops, not to mention the Magdalene Laundries, the industrial schools and the reformatories, mostly staffed…
Editorials
North Korea’s Other Problem
International alarm over North Korea’s nuclear ambitions skyrocketed after that country’s nuclear test last fall. Given the rapid increase in nuclear aspirations among so-called rogue nations, the alarm is warranted. But as winter’s cold descends, the fact that many North Koreans f
Faith in Focus
Mommy Math
I should have majored in math. Adding and subtracting are all I do anymore. Starting from 168, the number of hours in a week, I subtract 56 for the minimum hours of sleep I need (eight a night) to function properly without drinking ungodly quantities of caffeine. Of the remaining 112 hours, in theor
Books
Higher Learning
Notwithstanding the widely publicized campus ruckuses that have sprung up annually over performance of The Vagina Monologues Catholic universities are not the only institutions of higher education struggling over questions of Christian identity It is true that such universities as Harvard Yale an
You Want Gloomy? He Delivers
The poet-novelist-playwright Thomas Bernhard 1931-89 had much to be miserable about He was born out of wedlock to an Austrian carpenter who never acknowledged him and committed suicide in 1940 and a maidservant who promptly passed him on to her father a minor writer named Johannes Freumbichle
To Be Revised
The British statesman William E Gladstone reading the U S Constitution 100 years after it entered into force remarked The American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man Generations of Americans have since regarded their Consti
Film
Apocalunacy: Apocalypto
Thirty-plus years of doing this column have given me quite a high tolerance for awful stuff, but Apocalypto nearly beat me. After an hour, it took sheer will power to keep me in my seat. Yes, most early reviews of the film have been positive, but not ecstatic, so perhaps the problem rests in the…
The Word
Jesus the Prophet
In 2007 the Sunday Gospel reading is almost always from Luke The first part of today rsquo s text Luke 1 1-4 is the Evangelist rsquo s preface in which he explains how and why he wrote this Gospel Luke sought to provide an orderly account based on traditions about Jesus rsquo birth teaching
The Rejected Prophet
Today rsquo s selection from Luke rsquo s Gospel continues the narrative begun last Sunday The setting is the synagogue at Nazareth Jesus has read passages from the book of Isaiah concerning the anointed prophet of God and declared that ldquo today rdquo this passage was being fulfilled in him
Current Comment
Current Comment
New Years Resolutions for the EnvironmentHelp protect the earth by subscribing to some of Conservation International’s 10 New Year’s resolutions. Several strike at the heart of our consumerist society’s most ingrained habits. For water, use reusable glassware rather than the ubiqui
Faith
What Distinguishes the Jesuits?
From 2007, Cardinal Avery Dulles on “the shining features of the Society of Jesus”
Jesus the Prophet
In 2007 the Sunday Gospel reading is almost always from Luke The first part of today rsquo s text Luke 1 1-4 is the Evangelist rsquo s preface in which he explains how and why he wrote this Gospel Luke sought to provide an orderly account based on traditions about Jesus rsquo birth teaching
News
Signs of the Times
Maryknoll Magazine Marks 100 YearsIn an age of e-mail, digital photography and computerized layout, the Rev. James A. Walsh might not recognize the mission publication he founded 100 years ago as The Field Afar. But Father Walsh, who went on to become a bishop and co-founder of the Catholic Foreign
Politics
Faith
Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts