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Letters
Open to God
John A. Coleman, S.J., is rightly concerned by a theory of civil law that is excessively entangled with theological doctrine (Religious Liberty, 11/28). The official Catholic position on the numerous moral issues to which he refers certainly is theological doctrine. But it is also the objective teaching of human, moral reasoning. If not based on such reason, civil law runs the risk of a tyrannical positivism with no determining criterion other than the wish of the most powerful (which is not necessarily the majority).
Furthermore, if objective moral reasoning is not to be the content of civil law (in matters, of course, which evoke morality), then what else is to replace it? Legislating immorality or amorality seems to be, as experience proves, the only alternative. There is no moral neutrality. While that might save us from distasteful theories of too much God in civil law, it might well lead to irrational or nonrational law and to a society that follows suit. The fact that a society is open to God does not mean it is bereft of reason. Indeed, the opposite is more likely.
(Msgr.) Peter Magee
The Word
The central character in Mark rsquo s Gospel is Jesus of Nazareth who is identified as the Son of God both at the outset 1 1 and at the moment of his death 15 39 In between Mark presents Jesus as a miracle worker who heals the sick frees individuals from demonic possession and manifests powe
Arts & CultureBooks
In an utterly captivating piece of historical fiction Julie Baumgold has crafted a multifaceted gem of a novel that chronicles the history of the R gent diamond the central piece of the precious stone collection of the French throne Spirited out of India in 1702 by Robert Pitt the son of Thomas
Editorials
Before the passage, on Nov. 15, of the new document from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on lay ecclesial ministry, there was debate in the bishops’ meetings over whether the term ministry should be used to refer to laypersons working on behalf of the church. The debate endeddramatical
Last August marked the 25th anniversary of the birth of the Polish nonviolent revolution known as Solidarity. On the morning of Aug. 14, 1980, a strike in the Gdansk shipyard began what eventually caused the demise of Communism in Central and Eastern Europe. The whole world watched as ordinary peopl
Arts & CultureBooks
The distinguished social historian William H Chafe author of significant studies of civil rights the women rsquo s movement and liberalism considers in Private Lives Public Consequences how the personal becomes political Starting with the old-fashioned conviction that individual leaders make a
News
Communist Restrictions Remain, Say CzechsThe Czech Republic bishops’ conference said it could seek international arbitration against a new religious law imposing Communist-style restrictions on church activities. We can’t understand why the state wishes to tie the church down with these
On the bright morning of April 24, in a packed St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI solemnly inaugurated his ministry as universal shepherd in a ceremony filled with symbolic gestures. For hundreds of years, the centerpiece of papal installations had been a coronation, in which the pope was c
Editorials
In those countries that were once called Catholic, an ancient Gregorian chant that begins Te Deum laudamus (Holy God, We Praise Thy Name is a familiar English version) was sung on occasions of great public rejoicingthe ending of a war or the crowning of a king. It is still sung in many cathedrals on
Arts & CultureBooks
Man of letters Public intellectual Cultural critic Feuilletoniste Whatever he was exactly they don rsquo t make them like that anymore and the more rsquo s the pity Once upon a time writers like Edmund Wilson Mary McCarthy Irving Howe Alfred Kazin or even George Orwell armed only with the
Last summer I attended a conference at which a rather distinguished panel of White House correspondents discussedattempted to defend is actually a more accurate descriptionthe coverage by the U.S. media of the Bush administration’s build-up, invasion and continued U.S. military occupation of I
The Word
The magi who seem to have been Persian priests and or Babylonian astronomers came to Israel in search of the ldquo King of the Jews rdquo the Gentile translation for ldquo messiah rdquo or ldquo anointed one rdquo In ancient Israel priests prophets and kings were anointed In some Jewish
News
U.S. Bishops Support Condemnation of TorturePolicies that are unclear about the torture of prisoners damage U.S. international interests and credibility and are an offense against human rights, said panelists, who included a retired Army general, a former adviser to the Departments of State and Defe
Arts & CultureBooks
Over 70 years ago in 1934 the prize-winning biographer and historian Matthew Josephson published an eye-opening best seller entitled The Robber Barons Through prodigious research reports of congressional committees and ldquo inquiries rdquo done by state legislatures as key sources and gifted
This past autumn’s Supreme Court confirmation battles could be used as material for a short course in jurisprudence. Lesson One: Roe v. Wade Overshadows Everything (Why does abortion dominate American law and politics to a degree unheard of elsewhere in the world?). Lesson Two: Rights Absoluti
Faith in Focus
One of the Little Sisters of the Gospel who is a chaplain at a prison on Rikers Island in New York City asked me to say the Sunday Mass there on what turned out to be a bitterly cold afternoon. Part of me was glad to go; it would reconnect me with my own past years of chaplaincy work there. That exp
The Word
The first words that Jesus the Word of God speaks in John rsquo s Gospel are directed to two prospective disciples sent to him by John the Baptist Jesus asks them ldquo What are you looking for rdquo At the beginning of any spiritual journey it is important to ask what it is that we seek and d
Of Many Things
Since I moved to New York City a year ago, I have taken to walking after dinner around the midtown neighborhood in which I live. It’s especially glorious in the summer; the setting sun lends everything a generous glow. Winter brings early darkness, trudging and multiple layers. In the daytime,
Arts & CultureBooks
Readers of this absorbing book will learn a great deal about a politically ambitious English immigrant named Daniel Horsmanden who as a judge on New York rsquo s Supreme Court played a pivotal role in the transmutation of a sequence of robberies and suspicious fires in 1741 into a vast conspiracy