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Arts & CultureBooks
I carried a copy of Seamus Heaney rsquo s latest collection District and Circle with me to Europe this summer reading it on buses and trains and at outdoor restaurants in London This was the rainless summer when London hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time in recorded history happily
Editorials
With the exception of his appearance before his old faculty at the University of Regensburg, Pope Benedict XVI’s travels have been quiet affairs. Even a trip to Spain last July, which threatened to erupt into controversy over policy differences with that country’s Socialist government, t
Arts & CultureInterviews
"It was truly amazing how Martin Luther King could sustain his hope for a beloved community at a time when nobody, black or white, seemed to believe in it or even care."
Since the revelation in 2002 of sexual abuse cases involving Catholic priests in the United States, over 500 accused priests have been temporarily or permanently removed from ministry. This number is not expected to increase significantly, largely because the abuse-prevention policies and procedures
Of Many Things
Sometimes after a rain-swept day the skies clear and a golden sunset promises better weather for tomorrow. And sometimes, as Jeremiah said, the Lord provides consolation after tears (Jer 31:8-9). Loyola Jesuit College, a coeducational secondary school in Abuja, the federal capital of Nigeria, has du
News
The Election: Catholic Voters and IssuesExit polls indicate that a majority of Catholics voted Democratic on Nov. 7, helping the party to take control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. According to The New Republic, 52 percent of Catholics voted Democratic, compared with 47 pe
In sub-Saharan Africa, where antiretroviral therapy has increased more than eightfold since the end of 2003, great strides are being made in treating patients with H.I.V./AIDS. Those in the know, like participants in the 16th International AIDS Conference held last April in Toronto, Canada, express
Faith in Focus
After receiving my bachelor’s degree in English from Fordham University in May, I have been full of doubts about the future: Can I find my true vocation? Will I find employment that is both challenging and exciting? What kind of accomplishments will I shamelessly be bragging about over cocktai
The Word
At this time of year choirs all over the world are beginning to rehearse George Frideric Handel rsquo s ldquo Messiah rdquo This oratorio is an anthology of key texts from both Testaments set to music One high point among many for believers and even nonbelievers is the so-called ldquo Halleluj
Arts & CultureBooks
Almost 30 years ago when the field of medical ethics was still in its youth the Dominicans Benedict Ashley and Kevin O rsquo Rourke published Health Care Ethics To see how that professional discipline is now moving into its maturity one need only inspect Ashley and O rsquo Rourke rsquo s conside
Current Comment
Abu Ghraib at HomeThe now infamous photo of an Abu Ghraib detainee crouching in terror before a snarling dog appalled people around the world. But the same thing is happening in prisons in five U.S. states. Jamie Fellner, director of the Human Rights Watch prison program, points out in an October re
Columns
Our family has a new baby, and this has us thinking about the nature of help. What is help? Is it the neighbor who cooked a fancy gourmet meal for us (that none of us, all sick with colds, could eat) and left our kitchen in shambles, using every pot and pan in the place? Is it the friend who decided
Current Comment
Going Down to the SeaSaving deep-sea ecosystems from destructive bottom trawling is among the issues to be considered in November by the United Nations General Assembly. The marine biologist Sylvia Earle, executive director of Conservation International’s global marine division, has said that
Columns
Scott Fappiano spent more than 20 years in prison in New York. He was convicted of a brutal crime in 1985the rape of a woman married to a police officer in Brooklyn. His trial was not exactly open and shut. Although the victim identified Fappiano as her attacker by looking at photographs, he was, in
In response to an invitation from Fundlatin, a Venezuelan ecumenical human rights organization, I joined a delegation of Catholic, evangelical and Protestant Christians in April 2006 to witness the dramatic changes taking place in several of Venezuela’s poorest barrios. We were an independent
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
Letters
Great Teaching
My freshman theology course at Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart in 1956 was Mother Katherine Sullivan’s study of the Bible (Signs of the Times, 10/16). Thanks to her challenge, I read the entire Bible (slogging through even the doldrums of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, not to mention the disjointed though delightful Wisdom literature). But the most important influence she had was her encouragement to us to re-examine the Bible in terms of modern life and its place in our lives. How odd of God to choose the Jews was a mantra that led her classes into innumerable discussions of responsibilities that we were required to explain and take note of as they evolved with the times.
Deborah Faust
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