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Poetry
Gaudete
Brad Reynolds

Because Christmas is almost here

Film
A Birth for All Seasons: The Nativity Story
John P. McCarthy
The idea that Hollywood has found religion gets a boost from The Nativity Story, touted by its distributor, New Line Cinema, as the first-ever major motion picture devoted to the story of Jesus’ birth. Whether or not that claim is true, the movie is the best example of the recent rapprochement
Arts & CultureBooks
'A Dispiriting Tale'
John F. Haught
The cosmos of natural science today moves on a scale unimaginable to ancient prophets evangelists and makers of creeds Many thoughtful people have now concluded that the universe has outgrown the biblical God who is said to be its creator To them the content of Christian faith seems hopelessly in
Editorials
Out of the Tar Pit
The Editors
"We can’t pull out; we can’t win. Like a tar pit, Iraq has trapped the United States. If American troops remain there, few observers expect things to get better; and they may well grow worse. If the troops pull out, problems will certainly worsen for nearly everyone: for Iraqis abov
All Heated Up: An Interview With Elizabeth Kolbert
Elizabeth Kolbert
As a reporter you have gone from covering New York politics to global warming. Is it fair to say you’ve moved from one disaster to another?That’s not a bad way of putting it. In covering both I’ve seen people look some fairly obvious truths right in the face and dance around them.
Faith in Focus
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
Bea Broder-Oldach
Among the best-kept secrets of World War II was the presence of prisoner of war camps in the United States. With food in short supply in Europe and American supply ships returning empty from the front, the U.S. military devised a plan to maximize resources at home and abroad: supply ships would retu
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Avoid Racism

Thanks to George M. Anderson, S.J., for the interview with James Cone, Theologians and White Supremacy (11/20).

I am a member of a Dismantling Racism team in the greater Philadelphia area, and one of the few Catholic members. Our focus is primarily on racism as it survives today within the Christian churches.

So I was pleased that America used the interview as a cover story. Usually Catholic publications feature stories about racism only on special occasions, as in February for Black History Month. But as the interview indicates, this is an ongoing, serious moral issue and an area where the Christian churches have been very remiss. Many Christians seem to avoid racism on a personal level, but seem oblivious to its deeper systemic life, which affects so many of our structures and institutions, including Catholic theology and the church itself.

Jim Ratigan

Arts & CultureBooks
'Patterns of Relationship'
Lisa Sowle Cahill
Just Love’s thesis is that justice is central to sexual morality, especially justice in the sense of respect for the real identity and needs of the other.
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
James Martin, S.J.
"July," said my sister, Carolyn. And I was amazed. "This year we got our first Christmas catalogue in the mail in July," she said. It was from Lands’ End. Even though Carolyn was driving the car and I was sitting next to her, I knew without looking that we were rolling our
The Word
Joy in the Lord
Daniel J. Harrington
What makes you happy Where do you find your joy In what do you rejoice These are serious questions and for many people today they are not easy to answer Much in our culture promises joy but fails to deliver According to the Bible the origin and object of true joy is God The Third Sunday of Ad
Columns
The Titans Speak
Terry Golway
Before he took off for a tour of Asia in mid-November, President Bush played host to the leaders of the Big 2.5 American automakersGeneral Motors, Ford and the U.S. half of the multinational conglomerate known as DaimlerChrysler. The automakers had been hoping for an S.U.V.-sized summit conference o
The New Nuclear Danger
David Cortright
North Korea’s Recent nuclear test delivered a stark wake-up call. The bomb is back, and nuclear dangers are on the rise again, not only in North Korea but around the world. Iran is steadily building its nuclear capabilities and has refused to yield to international pressure over its uranium en
Faith in Focus
Living Between Memory and Longing
John R. Donahue
"Arrive,” “draw near,” or “come to”—that’s how “advent” enters English via the Latin advenire. Its usage is wide-ranging. The Vulgate translates the Greek parousia as adventus, “arrival” or “presence,” associated most
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pope: Dialogue Can Help End Terrorism, War, StrifeAddressing international diplomats on his first day in Turkey, Pope Benedict XVI said respectful dialogue must be the basis for ending terrorism, wars and religious differences in the world. Religions have a key role in this dialogue, but on the cond
Arts & CultureBooks
Ways to Witness
Kathleen Sprows Cummings
Last month students in my class on women and Catholicism spent an evening at a Catholic Worker House in South Bend Ind We prepared a meal shared it with the guests and listened to an after-dinner talk by Margaret Pfeil a staff member at the house and my colleague at Notre Dame Pfeil spoke abou
Editorials
Immigration Reform at Last?
The Editors
The 700-mile fence rising between the United States and Mexico stands as a dramatic symbol of the separation between a rich nation and a poor one. But it also serves as a symbol of our failed immigration policies. The wall and other restrictionist efforts are painful reminders of the misguided direc
Searching for Mexicos Future
Anthony C. E. Quainton
First there were three. Now there is one. Felipe Calderón is to be the next president of Mexico. After a tumultuous process of post-election negotiation, partial ballot recounting and seemingly endless demonstrations, a winner has been announced. How he governs will be a matter of great importance
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Radical Reform

I read Religious You Will Always Have With You, by Richard Rohr, O.F.M., (10/16) with great interest. As a young religious I am constantly reading the writings of religious who have more experience than I for insight and wisdom on the vowed life. The article left me with unsettled feelings hard to describe. I am left wondering what I am to believe about the choice I have made to be a religious in the 21st century? Am I to see this step as only a stage of initiation or rather as a place for me to stand firm? I was left with more questions than answers.

While I agree that religious life is in need of renewal and clarification in our world, I also believe that young religious are bringing gifts to contribute to this renewal and clarification. If we believe that religious life has a purpose in our world today, which I believe it does, then we must have faith that the Spirit is bringing to religious life the necessary tools for rejuvenation.

I am convinced that religious life in the 21st century is more about who we are and less about what we do. As Father Rohr wrote, religious were seen as the leaven of the church for many years. We were the teachers, catechists, preachers and ministers to the faithful. Today much of this has changed, for we see an empowered laity that has taken its rightful place in ministry. So what we do is not as significant as it was years ago. Who we are is much more important in helping to clarify our future. Professing the evangelical counsels is a radical freedom from our complex power-hungry culture of individualism and materialism.

For those who are joining religious life much later in life than many of the older religious did, I think the reality is a bit different. Religious life for us is not a springboard of values and faith formation toward a future as a lay minister. Rather it is an entrance into a community of discipleship committed to a witness that our world so desperately needs. It is a resting place for our restless heart. Suggesting that religious life is simply initiation seems incomplete.

I entered the community at the age of 27 after seven years of discernment. While living the vowed life has not been the easiest, other life choices would have presented their own challenges. If I were to see this stage of my human development as merely initiation, I might as well throw in the towel. I think Christ lures me to a life deeply rooted in the Gospel, a life in which I am called to witness the radical freedom of the vowed life. Religious life is now my identity; it is my home; and it is the place from which I stand. I must see it as such and not simply as a stop along the way.

There is nothing that keeps me here in the vowed life more than my own commitment to it, but this is precisely the point. Young religious are making a deliberate and carefully discerned choice to join religious life today. We come with big ideas, restless hearts and experiences that would scandalize the older religious. Yet we are blessed to have a place within our faith community where we can find rest to be more than we imagined we could be. It is here in religious life that I hope to be challenged to grow in my life of Christ. It is here that I hope I can be a witness in our world of restless individuality and materialism.

In some ways our call as religious men and women gives us a rather simple and humble place to stand, feet firmly planted, like Mary at the foot of the cross. It is from this place that I think we will discover purpose for this life. It is from the Mount of Calvary that I have come to discover that my life as a religious is much more than initiation. It is an identity as one who is beloved.

Brian Halderman, S.M.

The Word
Hopes and Realities
Daniel J. Harrington
Hope involves wishing and waiting for something that has a chance of becoming a reality The Scripture readings for the Second Sunday of Advent enable us to see what is important and distinctive in the biblical understanding of hope God is the origin ground and goal of hope They also remind us th
Arts & CultureBooks
Their Distinctive Presence
Allan Figueroa Deck
American Catholics have persisted in viewing both U S secular and church history as primarily a movement of Northern European people and institutions westward across the barren plains But the deeper truth that inexorably is catching up with us is that it is also increasingly the history of movem