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Arts & CultureBooks
Paul Wilkes
In the highly charged and fertile theological world out of which Vatican II was born there was widespread agreement that the Catholic Church needed to rethink itself Stale Thomistic recitations seemed out of step with emerging ways of looking at Christ the world the liturgy the role of both ord
Arts & CultureBooks
Daniel J. Harrington
If asked ldquo Who is Satan rdquo most of us might give an answer something like this Satan or the Devil is the fallen angel who persuaded Adam and Eve to commit the ldquo original sin rdquo Also known as the Antichrist and Lucifer he now presides over hell and entices people on earth to sin
The Word
Daniel J. Harrington
In early 21st-century America money and material possessions are often taken as signs not only of intelligence and goodness but also of divine favor They are regarded as the key to happiness Despite all kinds of evidence to the contrary most of us still assume that money can and does buy happines
Editorials
The Editors
Those who take an apocalyptic view of the campaign against international terrorism like to cite the historian Samuel Huntington’s prediction of a "clash of civilizations." Commentators sympathetic to this view applauded Pope Benedict XVI’s address at the University of Regensbur
Edward P. Hahnenberg
Much of the work to be done in the wake of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ new document on lay ecclesiastical ministry is on the practical and pastoral level. The National Association of Lay Ministry raised some tough questions about Co-Workers in the Vineyard of the Lord (November 2005) when they
Letters

Love of Learning

How happy I was to see your reference to Alma Miller, R.S.C.J., in the editorial, The People’s Schools (9/18). It was a privilege to be both her student and a dear friend, with whom I corresponded weekly throughout her life. Mother Miller demanded and expected the best from us. In addition to receiving a marvelous education, I was given a love of learning that I have never lost. Her enthusiasm for knowledge was contagious. After 50 years I am still taking courses, reading and writing. I know that would please her.

Phyllis Townley

Arts & CultureBooks
Wayne A. Holst
The North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end The center of Christian gravity is undeniably shifting southward This development is not a blip on the religious radar screen but a profound permutation Globally a major gravitational adjustment is occurring in the population density
Arts & CultureBooks
Daniel Levine
Alan Wolfe director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College has written a sharp indictment of the Bush administration and the conservatives who support it Wolfe rsquo s overall interpretive point in Does American Democracy Still Work is that conservatives wh
Of Many Things
Patricia A. Kossmann
The popular refrain "Everything old is new" again seems to characterize increasing segments of book publishing since the turn of the millennium. Thanks to Loyola Classics, for example, a character named Mr. Blue, a contemporary Francis-esque gallant monk without an Order has emerged from a
News
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
At U.N. Holy See Cites Ideologies of ForceAddressing the 61st United Nations General Assembly in New York on Sept. 27, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican’s special envoy, contended that a lack of political consensus and an ideology of force undermine the cause of peace. It is not so much
George M. Anderson
The Gulag Museum in Russia, the Slave House (Maison des Esclaves) in Senegal, the Terezín Memorial in the Czech Republic: what could these places have in common? They all are what have come to be known as sites of conscience. And each represents issues involving human rights; hence the use of the w
Arts & CultureBooks
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
The gifts the poet discovers as she endures this dark night of the soul are many, and chief among these is her faith.
Current Comment
The Editors
Census Data and the PoorThe poor became poorer last year, according to a recent analysis of the new U.S. Census Bureau data by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Put another way, the report points out that the proportion of poor people who experienced severe povertythat is, whose
News
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Study Reports Influences on Newly Ordained PriestsAccording to a new study, recently ordained priests are now older and more culturally diverse than those of 15 years ago. The major theological influence on new priests was Pope John Paul II. The German Jesuit Karl Rahner, who easily ranked at the to
Rabbi Leon Klenicki
Yom Kippur in Buenos Aires, 1945. I stood next to my father as we prayed with our small community in a rented room in the Jewish Old Age Home. The men were wrapped in white shawls, called a kittel, a symbol of the angels in heaven and a reminder of death, for it was also the shroud in which they wou
Faith in Focus
William A. Barry
Jesus called God “Abba” (“dear Father”), which tells us something about his relationship with God. In the same vein, he told his followers, “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father in heaven’” (Matt 6: 9), telling us that we have a similar relationship wi
The Word
Daniel J. Harrington
Two of the most difficult problems facing the Catholic Church in the United States in the early part of the 21st century are the high incidence of divorce and the fallout from the crisis caused by sexual abuse by members of the clergy These are complicated matters that demand to be approached from
Arts & CultureBooks
Ann Rodgers
Although it may be hard to imagine a volume on the construction of St Peter rsquo s Basilica as a beach book R A Scotti has produced an account gripping enough to be one The subtitle The Splendor and the Scandal hints at its focus This is not a dry account for the architectural journals but
Editorials
The Editors
Armies inevitably refight the last war, and generals are often unprepared for the new war their enemy brings them. The law and ethics of war follow the same pattern. Years go by before lawmakers and ethicists recognize the worrisome changes that have overtaken warfare. It took decades for the human
Columns
Margaret Silf
I have learned the hard way - through many a tortured battle with airport scales around the world - to travel light. So my modest 14 kilograms caused no convulsions at the Manchester airport, and I confidently watched the check-in attendant fasten the label around my bag, designating its intended de