Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Clear filter
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
New U.S. Ecumenical Group FoundedChristian Churches Together in the USAthe broadest, most inclusive ecumenical movement in U.S. historywas officially founded during a gathering near Atlanta, Ga., on March 28-31. Its founding 34 Christian churches and national organizations represent more than 100 mi
The Moment, the Message, the Messenger
Tom Fox
The Catholic Church’s social teachings need to be heard today throughout our country. Our church has much to say to this moment. But our collective record in conveying these teachings is rather modest. Can we do better? What voices can be gathered to share our rich and growing heritage of soci
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Truly Distinguished

I write this as a board member of the Venerable John Henry Newman Association. It has been a concern of the association for some time to distinguish itself from the Cardinal Newman Society, which society appears so prominently in your editorial, Measuring Catholic Identity (3/27).

The Venerable John Henry Newman Association was founded in the 1980’s by the late Vincent Giese, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago, whose present diocesan bishop, Cardinal Francis George, is the association’s spiritual advisor. The purpose of our organization is to encourage research into and to disseminate knowledge of the life, views and writings of John Henry Newman; to contribute in various ways to the cause of John Henry Newman’s beatification and canonization.

The association fosters the first purpose of research into and dissemination of knowledge of this great pastor and teacher through an annual conference, this year being held on Aug. 3-5 at the University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein, Ill. The theme of the conference is Newman in the 21st century. Further information on the Venerable John Henry Newman Association is available at its Web site, www.udallas.edu/newman.

What I have said about the association also applies to the National Institute of Newman Studies (N.I.N.S.), located in Pittsburgh, Pa., with whom the association is closely allied. N.I.N.S. is dedicated solely to promoting the study and spreading the knowledge of the life, influence and work of the Venerable John Henry Newman. The institute accomplishes this mission by maintaining the Newman Research Library, sponsoring the Newman Scholarship Program and publishing the Newman Studies Journal.

The Venerable John Henry Newman Association and the National Institute of Newman Studies thanks America for this opportunity to distinguish ourselves from the Cardinal Newman Society.

Edward J. Enright, O.S.A.

Arts & CultureBooks
A Conservative Hall of Fame
Peter Heinegg
What exactly is the conservative intellectual tradition in America More troubling still what can be said who can be cited to counter Lionel Trilling rsquo s pronouncement in his preface to The Liberal Imagination 1950 that In the United States at this time liberalism is not only the dominant
FaithThe Word
Back to Basics!
Daniel J. Harrington
"Back to basics!” is a familiar slogan in many walks of life, including religion. The basics of Christianity include the creeds, moral precepts and sacraments. But where do these basics come from?
Current Comment
Current Comment
The Editors
Sant'Egidio Comes to AmericaThe most important Catholic group that you may never have heard of is the Sant’Egidio community. Their anonymity may lessen with an upcoming convention, Religion and Cultures, to be held at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., on April 26-27. It will be t
Uniting America Spiritually
Bruce Nieli
This year the Missionary Society of St. Paul the Apostle, commonly known as the Paulists, is beginning the process of seeking beatification for its founder, Isaac Thomas Hecker. To see Father Hecker declared blessed would indeed be an encouraging sign not only for our Paulist community but also for
Faith in Focus
Why Evil?
Ellen Rufft
Some time after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center four years ago, I read the results of a study of 437 adults over age 50 that indicated that their sense of control over their lives dropped significantly after that event. I found it interesting that the people who were more religious su
Arts & CultureBooks
Holiness Test'
Laura Sheahen
Can great artists be holy Should they even try to be holy This question has troubled many painters poets and composers for centuries Tormented by the world rsquo s imperfections uniquely susceptible to the sensual and necessarily hardened to criticism artists may be more vulnerable to particula
The Word
The Search for Identity
Daniel J. Harrington
All over the world people seem to be searching for their ldquo identity rdquo Some find it in religion race or gangs often with disastrous results There are also others especially the young with very little sense of identity or self-esteem Here too the result is sometimes tragic issuing in
Editorials
Hunger USA
The Editors
Hunger here in the richest nation in the world? Impossible, one might think. But the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ annual Hunger and Homelessness Survey makes it clear that hunger and food insecurity (not always having access to enough food to meet basic needs) not only exist, but are on the rise
Left Behind
John A. Coleman
In a recent article in The Nation, the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, author of American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, expressed his shock at the moribund state of the American secular left. He found it strange, as an outsider, that so many progressives seem to
Poetry
The One Who Leaves Few Footprints in the Snow: To Thomas Merton
Liliana Ursu
He splits wood,
Arts & CultureBooks
Workers Unite
Kevin Mattson
Some of my best friends yes I know it rsquo s a clich are labor organizers We tend to talk about the prospects of the labor movement and the conversations quickly turn gloomy The A F L -C I O now that its leader Andrew Stern and his brethren are leaving is in tatters The percentage of un
Current Comment
Current Comment
The Editors
Reality CheckIn recent weeks, plans for school and parish reconfigurations have been disclosed in a number of dioceses. It is reality-check time across much of the Northeast, where changing demographics have occasioned these realignments. However poignant and evocative the stories of my grandmother
From Calvary to Galilee
Roberto S. Goizueta
"Señor, me has mirado a los ojos; sonriendo, has dicho mi nombre. (Lord, you have looked into my eyes; smiling, you have called my name.) So goes the refrain of one of the best known Latin American hymns, which poignantly expresses the core Christian belief: God loved us first. When you looked
The Word
The Easter Difference
Daniel J. Harrington
The seven weeks between Easter Sunday and Pentecost constitute the Easter season While less well known than Advent or Lent the Easter season is important because we live in the light of Jesus rsquo resurrection at Easter and are challenged repeatedly to reflect on the difference that the Easter e
Faith in Focus
Hope
Emilie Griffin
"Let him easter in us," wrote Gerard Manley Hopkins in his poem The Wreck of the Deutschland. In this case easter is a nautical term. It means steering a craft toward the east, into the light. Throughout the 40 days of Lent we have been heading toward the light, trying to shake the darknes
Culture
How to/Not to Novelize Jesus
John B. Breslin
Writing a novel based on the Gospels is a tricky business, not only because the Gospels themselves are such special documents, but because the two literary forms have very different purposes. Both are narratives, of course, but the novel is, historically speaking, a relatively recent phenomenon and
Editorials
The Promise of Resurrection
The Editors
For Christians throughout the world the dawn of Easter morning marks the celebration of the triumph of life over death, as we affirm our faith in the resurrection of Jesus. Religious faith is easily caricatured these days, dismissed as a failure of nerve before the ambiguities of real life or, more