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Editorials
Antipersonnel landmines that tear bodies apart are a problem now resolved, right? Wrong. Although much progress has been made over the past decades in slowing their production and use, as well as in demining areas where they still represent a threat to farmers, children, refugees and civilians in ge
Last spring, when I visited Major Tony De Stefano at Malone House, a guesthouse converted into an inpatient unit at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., Tony had been there for close to a year. He was undergoing treatment for a lung disease contracted in Afghanistan, probably from inhaling fine
Collette Kayakez sells dried fish in her urban neighborhood in Lubumbashi, the second-largest city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Not long ago, her business was failing. It is hard to keep track of prices and sales if you do not know how to read and write. Ms. Kayakez, her husband, Ibert,
Faith in Focus
In early January of 2003, I was at dinner with Martina, who is now my wife, when I noticed a lump on the right side of my collarbone. It felt tough and nodular, but there was no pain. Martina and I tried to have a normal dinner, but concern got the best of us, and we dropped the rest of our evening
Arts & CultureBooks
Imagine a feasta symposium really in the ancient Greek sense of the wordin which the aim is not merely to enjoy good food and drink but also to share in thoughtful conversation The guest of honor a distinguished Christian thinker is the main course but other luminaries are present occasionall
Of Many Things
'I puzzled, as I walked across the U.S. Capitol grounds, over the building in the distance. Was that where I was headed? It was certainly distinctive, with a large, story-high lip overhanging the east face. As I drew closer, I could see the south wall undulating in soothing waves. Then the wall
News
Brazilian Cardinal to Head Clergy CongregationPope Benedict XVI has named Cardinal Claudio Hummes of S o Paulo Brazil a Franciscan to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Clergy The 72-year-old Brazilian-born son of German immigrants Cardinal Hummes will succeed Cardinal Dar o Castrill
Along with the roughly 2,800 American men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, 26,000 have been injured, some of them permanently disabled. The news media tend to focus on those who have died, but what about the stories of soldiers who have been disabled? The scope of the question was br
Orrin Hatch, Utah’s Republican senior senator, is a firm opponent of abortion. He is also a firm supporter of research on embryonic stem cells, even though this involves destruction of the embryos. The senator’s reasons for this latter position are mainly two. He believes, as he has said
Film
The Departed is a puzzling name for Martin Scorsese’s remake of the Hong Kong crime action movie “Infernal Affairs” (Lau and Mak, 2002). The term generally refers to dead people. As the film progresses through its two-and-a-half-hour tour of the mean streets of working-class Boston
Arts & CultureBooks
If you wanted to explain to a visiting Martian what the old American WASP aristocracy was all about you could find worse examples than Roger Angell First there is the pedigree one ancestor Captain John Sheple was captured as a teenager by Abenaki Indians in a raid on Groton Mass in 1694 A
The Word
We are coming close to the end of one church year and the beginning of another Next Sunday is the feast of Christ the King and the following Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent On these Sundays the Scripture readings lead us to consider ldquo the last things rdquo or what is often called ldqu
Current Comment
Checks and BalancesTypically, Americans think of governmental checks and balances as the interplay among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. But when all three branches lean toward the same political party and have the ideological cohesion to override minority views (as has been the ca
Columns
A light has gone out in the house next door. The elderly gentleman who lived there was a friend as well as a neighbor. A light in his porch always assured us that he was well. I really miss that light each night now as darkness falls. In some small way a light has gone out in the world too, because
He neither asks for money nor passes out donation envelopes after his speeches. He neither wants pity for his situation nor accolades for his work. He speaks to anyone who will listen and his mission is to encourage others to get their hands dirty for peace. I am a Palestinian, a proud Palestinian,
Arts & CultureBooks
In Running Alone the distinguished Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James McGregor Burns tracks almost a half-century of what he considers critically flawed American presidential leadership His starting point is John F Kennedy rsquo s success in the 1960 election in which he ran his campaign wit
Arts & CultureBooks
To read A Balm for Gilead is to want author/friar/physician Daniel Sulmasy and his disciples to be your doctor, nurse or therapist. A practitioner with a deep sense of spirituality who considers healing an encounter with the divine will not blame us for our bad habits, will not be repulsed by what illness does to our bodies, will not give up on us when treatments do not work and will see in us the opportunity to serve God.
Sulmasy takes his title from the spiritual sung in his Harlem parish:
There is a balm in Gilead
Editorials
Since Americans pay more for health insurance and health care than do people in most other highly developed countries, it is reasonable to ask: Are we getting our money’s worth, if value is measured by a long and presumably healthy life? Are our national health expenditures a good investment,
The Arab oil embargo of 1973, initiated to protest U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, was a watershed event in U.S. energy history. It sparked higher gasoline prices and, before it was lifted in March 1974, raised concerns about a possible energy crisis. But ethical issues relating to wor
Letters
Lesser Love
Twice now during the past week, a squirrel has eaten away parts of my windowsill and gnawed four-inch holes in the screen to facilitate its entry to my house.
Yes, I have read with appreciation Mary Oliver’s poem Making the House Ready for the Lord (9/25). Come in, come in, she says to animals seeking shelter as winter dawns on a snowy world.
And what is my response? Unlike the poet, I have for God’s creatures who live out there in my yard a lesser and imperfect love that stops upon my doorstep. Beyond that boundary I offer a crust of last night’s pizza, nuts and suet, apples, whole wheat bread crumbs. To these you are welcome. Help yourself, I say, but keep your distance. This house is mine. For the limits to my hospitality, may the Lord forgive me.
And another thing: Stop digging up my daffodils.
Katharine Byrne