A More Authentic Way: Can the RCIA meet the needs of modern-day spiritual seekers?
In his new book, Becoming Catholic, the sociologist David Yamane tells the story of Deacon Zeke, the coordinator of adult religious education for a parish in the Midwest. Professor Yamane sat in on several of Deacon Zeke’s classes for people participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of
Faithful Aspirations: How can we make room for everybody in the church?
I was stunned. I had asked a prominent leader in evangelization, a priest, if he thought his parents were evangelized. He shook his head “No” and explained that he did not think his parents were disciples in the sense in which the church calls Catholics to be disciples today. I wondered:
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
With expanded coverage, ‘America’ aims to draw a fuller image of what church means.
Letters
Reply All
Not ExemptTaking the advice of Matt Malone, S.J., I read “side-by-side” the two essays on Israel/Palestine, “For Israel,” by John Conley, S.J., and “Gaza Again,” by Margot Patterson (8/4). Father Conley disappointed.My disappointment, bordering on intellectual sho
Editorials
Signs of hope for the American worker
Despite well-reported setbacks, past year saw signs of hope for the American worker.
Faith and Reason
What Thomas Aquinas can teach students about happiness (and theology)
When it comes to how they spend their free time, why they study and what they envision for their life beyond the classroom, students are trying to pursue happiness. Too often, however, this wrestling does not go far enough.
Faith in Focus
Stumbling Onward: Learning from my third graders
There has been an ontological honesty to my stumbles, and they’ve usually landed me in places confidence never would have brought me.
House of Corrections: Lessons from behind bars
I stayed on the phone with my husband as I drove up to the prison, its jagged stone facade stretching outward from a large, pointed, central turret. If it had not been nestled within the beautiful, rolling landscape of the lower Catskill mountains, I thought, this building would look much more omino
Books
Acts of Resistance
‘Warsaw 1944,’ by Alexandra Richie
Lost Youth
‘All The Light We Cannot See,’ by Anthony Doerr
Inside Story
‘Hothouse,’ by Boris Kachka
Film
Life Itself: Richard Linklater’s journey through “Boyhood”
Richard Linklater’s journey through ‘Boyhood’
Poetry
Untitled
You fold this sweater the way a mothbuilds halls from the darkness it needsto go on living—safe inside this closet a family is gathering for dinner, cashmerewith oil, some garlic, a little salt, litand wings warmed by mealtime stories about flying at night into small firesgrazing on
The Word
His Humility
We are called to travel many paths some that challenge us others that inspire us To trust in God is to trust that whatever path we are now on is the one that will ultimately bring us to the Promised Land This is easy to say especially when one rsquo s path is not meandering…
Love’s Obligations
What does it mean to love your neighbor Paul says that ldquo love does no evil to the neighbor rdquo and that ldquo love is the fulfillment of the law rdquo How do these two statements coalesce to produce a practical Christian ethic of behavior One is stated negatively mdash love does no evil
Columns
Grace on the Greyhound
In their dignity and in their hard work, the poor can often be our models.
Current Comment
Current Comment
First-ever African leaders summit highlights continent’s growing economies.
Faith
What Thomas Aquinas can teach students about happiness (and theology)
When it comes to how they spend their free time, why they study and what they envision for their life beyond the classroom, students are trying to pursue happiness. Too often, however, this wrestling does not go far enough.
Of Other Things
Alone in a Crowd
I can pass thousands of people without anyone saying a single word to me.
Signs Of the Times
Ferguson, Mo.: Calls for Peace After Street Unrest
As groups across the country held vigils to remember Michael Brown, a teenager whose death on Aug. 9 has sparked a wave of unrest in his Missouri hometown and raised questions about racial profiling and police militarization, religious leaders in the St. Louis area called upon “all people to p
Dispatch From Los Angeles: Murrieta Revisited
The example of Christ looms large over the immigration debate here.
Pope Francis Sets Out Bold Vision Of Dialogue for Asian Bishops
Pope Francis opened new horizons for the Catholic Churches in Asia with a groundbreaking talk on Aug. 17 to 70 bishops from 36 countries of this vast continent, in which he encouraged them to engage in a dialogue that must not only be based on identity but also must be done with “empathy.&rdqu
Anti-Gay Law Struck Down in Uganda
Uganda’s gay rights supporters caught a glimpse of hope on Aug. 1 when the country’s constitutional court ruled that the December 2013 parliamentary vote to pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was illegal because of the below-quorum attendance. The new law, hailed by the Ugandan president a
Johnson Honored by Women Religious
Elizabeth Johnson, C.S.J., a theology professor at Fordham University, was given the top award of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious’ on Aug. 15 during its national assembly in Nashville, Tenn. During her acceptance speech, she strongly criticized the U.S. bishops for their formal cr
News Briefs
The death of Miguel Pajares, O.H., on Aug. 12 brought to six the number of caregivers at a Catholic-run hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, who died of Ebola in August. • An official with the Catholic Near East Welfare Association said humanitarian agencies are “trying to pick up the pieces&rd
Pope Francis Condemns ISIS
“Thousands of people, including many Christians, driven from their homes in a brutal manner; children dying of thirst and hunger in their flight; women kidnapped; people massacred; violence of every kind”—Pope Francis was clear in his condemnation of the actions of the militants of
Vatican Dispatch
Following Francis
Like the mustard seed, Asia’s Catholic Church has great potential for growth.
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