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Faith in Focus
The mark of authentic Christianity has always been a paradox: it is thoroughly rooted in the earth (God’s creation) and entirely bent on moving toward heaven (God himself). It is a dynamic balance if there ever was one. The virtue of hope is not different. How could it be? It is as human as ca
News
FEMA Gave Bishops Runaround on DisasterChurch officials got the runaround from the Federal Emergency Management Agency when they wanted to know what federal plans were for helping the regions devastated by Hurricane Katrina, said the head of the bishops’ hurricane relief task force. The harsh
Portfolio
Members of the Society of Jesus are often accused of excessive pride in their order and its history. This can be a fair critique. Sometimes, for example, Jesuits speak as if St. Ignatius Loyola were the first Christian to discover prayer. Not long ago at a retreat house, I gave a talk about Ignatian
Arts & CultureBooks
Scholars have long noted a religious quality in Shakespeare rsquo s drama in which human histories are magnified through symbolic rites of passage sacramental language and ritual We witness life death and resurrection in his plays Over the past decade scholarly attention has focused on Shakespe
Of Many Things
"Spots of time" is what the poet William Wordsworth called those places that imprint themselves so deeply into our minds that simply remembering them can lift our hearts - in other words, holy places. I thought about that phrase as I left Kentucky last month after visiting the Abbey of Get
Arts & CultureBooks
My parish church in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn announced its political inclinations with a poster hung in a glass-encased bulletin board just inside the front entrance during the 1960 rsquo s and early 70 rsquo s The photo showed an aborted fetus lying at the bottom of a silver bucket wit
News
Study Finds Catholic Teens Less Religious Than ProtestantsA wide study of U.S. teenagers has found that Catholic teens lag behind their Protestant counterparts on many measures of religious belief, experience and activity. Only 10 percent of Catholic teens, for example, said religion was extremely i
Recently I tried out on my students a new upper-level undergraduate course entitled "The Islamic Jesus." As a Catholic whose research interests range from the Middle East to Pakistan and Indonesia, I am drawn to opportunities for creative forms of interfaith dialogue. This new course certa
Faith in Focus
We are pilgrim people. So the Second Vatican Council proclaimed 16 times in its documents. Ever since Catholics heard these words, they have echoed them in songs and chants: we are pilgrims on the march, “for here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come” (Heb 13:14
The Word
If you want to drive a New Testament scholar crazy start talking about how we bring about the kingdom of God Such talk is both unbiblical and bad theology It is God rsquo s kingdom to bring when and how God sees fit Our task and privilege is to bear witness to and cooperate in God rsquo s work
Of Many Things
"Here today, gone tomorrow.” That familiar saying can apply to many things, including buildings and rare architectural artifacts. In a city like New York, buildings are torn down and replaced in a matter of months, their original accompanying artifacts lost. With this destruction of older
Columns
The question of how the United States is treating, or mistreating, prisoners captured in the war on terror has been simmering for some time. Indeed, it has been an issue ever since George W. Bush’s post-9/11 speech, when he committed the United States to a global fight against terrorism, a fig
Faith in Focus
I was traveling toward a major metropolitan area on the last day of a long holiday weekend. You can picture the scene: as far as the eye could see, both lanes were clogged, moving slowly. It was the sort of traffic that leaves only one option: double the expected travel time, find an entertaining ra
Letters
Already in Place
It would be a mistake to assume that the recent meeting in Rome of the World Synod of Bishops did very little to alleviate the associated problems of the unavailability of the Holy Eucharist and the shortage of priests (Signs of the Times, 10/31). A decision to go with married priests, suddenly and everywhere, would have been a colossal disturbance. But the ordination of married viri probati was floated at the synod. Married convert ministers are considered such, and are ordained. Therefore, the policy of ordaining viri probati is already in place. This policy can easily be extended, a quantitative change only, to permanent deacons. They, of course, would have to request priestly ordination. There is little reason to think they would not be offered the same treatment as converts. Neither of these groups, by the way, has been involved in the sexual scandal.
(Rev.) Connell J. Maguire
Arts & CultureBooks
The study of the Catholic response to the Holocaust goes beyond the event itself as demonstrated in this work by Suzanne Brown-Fleming a historian with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum In The Holocaust and Catholic Conscience she probes the career of Aloisius Muench one of the most co
The Word
Many people even some with extensive Catholic education confuse the immaculate conception of Mary and the virginal conception of Jesus According to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception Mary was conceived without original sin and so was prepared to be the mother of Jesus In this respect Mar
Editorials
Mean-spiritedthat is the only way to describe the budget cuts proposed by the House of Representatives. They are not only deep; their impact will be felt most by the very people who are least able to sustain them, namely, the poorest: low-income working parents, the elderly, children and legal immig
On Dec. 7 we commemorate the 40th anniversary of the promulgation of the “Declaration on Religious Liberty” (known also by the opening words of the Latin text, Dignitatis Humanae). No other decree of the Second Vatican Council was so controversial, underwent so many trials and setbacks (
Faith in Focus
On Oct. 6, 2005, a memorial Mass was celebrated at Holy Trinity Church in Washington, D.C., for Monika Hellwig, the distinguished theologian and educator who a month earlier had become a Senior Fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center. It was the very day and time when she had planned to lead a di