Vermeer’s Window: An artist’s meditation on living in the present
It has become a commonplace of spirituality that we are meant to live in the present. Thoreau, whose spirituality is so widely revered today, aspired to “toe that line,” and found support for his aspiration in the Bhagavad Gita, one of the most ancient spiritual classics. Today, countles
Why is it so hard for young Catholics to find the right parish?
In the fall of 2013, gentrification arrived in my working-class North Oakland neighborhood. The rent ticked up month after month. Then one day, the landlord called to notify us he was putting the house on the market. Because of an influx of highly paid tech workers into the Bay Area, the house liste
Papal Healing: Pope Francis’ U.S. visit may mark a farewell to factions.
Ron Murphy, S. J., a Georgetown University German professor, was returning from the Catholic University of America, where Pope Francis had celebrated the canonization of St. Junípero Serra, when a woman approached him. “Father, Father,” she exclaimed, “this pope is wonderful. This
Of Many Things
Catholic justices begin new SCOTUS term with Red Mass
Catholic justices begin new SCOTUS term with Red Mass
Letters
Reply All
Exposing Euthanasia“Tired of Living” (9/21), by John Conley, S.J., regarding euthanasia in the Netherlands, is on target. But there’s trouble here in the United States as well. Dr. William Toffler, a physician in Portland, Ore., in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (8/18), recently expos
Editorials
Why mass incarceration became the norm, and how we can fix it
Why mass incarceration became the norm, and how we can fix it
Faith in Focus
Finding the music in praying the rosary
My grandmother’s rosary was of amethyst-colored beads and a small silver crucifix, gray-black with tarnish. She kept it on the bureau in her bedroom near a holy card of St. Jude and a talcum powder box made of imitation satin. She’d put it in a special pouch—an old change purse, ac
Books
Paper Chase
‘The Times-Picayune in a Changing Media World,’ by S. L. Alexander, Frank D. Durham, Alfred Lawrence Lorenz and Vicki Mayer
Dealing with Grief
‘The Abbey,’ by James Martin, S.J.
At a Crossroads
In her urgent new book, Heretic, Ayaan Hirsi Ali argues persuasively that extremists have seized control of Islam by citing passages in Islam’s holy books that sanction violence.
Theater
A Dreamy ‘Awakening’ : A ‘deaf musical’ on Broadway
A ‘deaf musical’ on Broadway
Poetry
(small places)
as a childI dreamed of small placessleeping in dresser drawershiding in cabinetsthinking about tunnels I loved the story of Moseshow he hid ina cleft in the rockbehind the hollowof God’s hand nowin the cityI lose myself in thoughtstanding on the subway platform wondering if I wo
The Word
Today’s Gospel: The sum of mercy
When Jesus encounters the blind man Bartimaeus son of Timaeus in Mark rsquo s Gospel he has just unveiled the last of the three Passion predictions in which he explains the suffering and death that await him in Jerusalem Jesus is leaving Jericho on the way to his destiny in Jerusalem and Barti
Columns
An End in Sight?
The longest running embargo in modern history has manifestly failed.
Current Comment
Current Comment
Volkswagen has been found guilty of a particularly noxious kind of duplicity.
Philosopher's Notebook
A New Subordinationism
This expanded intervention of the state weakens personal freedom.
Signs Of the Times
Another Mass Shooting Incident Wounds a Northwest Community
St. Joseph Parish in Roseburg, Ore., hosted an emotional Mass the evening of Oct. 1 to remember 10 people who died in a shooting that morning at Umpqua Community College. Authorities in Roseburg, a small town in green rolling hills 180 miles south of Portland, report that nine others were wounded.F.
What Xi Jinping owes Pope Francis
Mr. Xi’s visit came as his leadership of China’s economy is increasingly being questioned.
Pope Francis Seeks To Open Church Doors to All
‘A church with closed doors betrays herself and her mission, and, instead of being a bridge, becomes a roadblock,” Pope Francis said in his homily during a concelebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on Oct. 4, as he opened the meeting of the Synod of Bishops on the family.Francis i
News Briefs
An Ethiopian priest, Tesfaye Tadesse Gebresilasie, became the first African to be elected superior general of the Comboni Missionaries on Sept. 30. • The Vatican denounced the decision by Msgr. Krzysztof Charamsa of Poland on the eve of the Synod of Bishops’ meeting on the family to annou
Kim Davis Fallout
Attempting to stamp out a controversy that threatened to overshadow the many historic moments of the pope’s first visit to the United States, the Vatican issued a statement on Oct. 2 to clarify the circumstances of the pope’s meeting with embattled Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis. Accord
Dangers of Austerity
Concerned that Puerto Rico’s debt crisis is inflicting hardship on poor and middle-class households, Archbishop Robert González Nieves of San Juan met with congressional leaders and the White House to push for a resolution in September. The crisis has led to school closings, cuts in social se
Mining Crimes
Church leaders in the southern Philippines said the killing of tribal leaders and the harassment suffered by indigenous peoples in Mindanao are related to mining operations in the area. The tribal people “who firmly stand against mining activities were the ones being intimidated by paramilitar
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