Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Books
Cynthia Ozick is a storyteller with an acute sense of the world Her stories are parables and her novels have the precision of Jamesian prose coupled with wit and deep philosophical import Her novel Heir to the Glimmering World renders the lives of refugees and outcasts with humor and empathy and
News
Social Doctrine Compendium Promotes Human Dignity, Common GoodThe God-given dignity of humans and the obligation to promote the common good of all the world’s people require the Catholic Church to speak on social issues, says the new Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The church&
I vividly remember first seeing Karl Rahner in 1964 at Georgetown University’s 175th anniversary celebration. A major symposium had been prepared, during which he delivered—that is to say, William Dych, S.J., read for him—the great lecture on the theology of freedom. Awestruck, I s
Books
In light of the present worldwide prestige of the papacy it comes as a shock to realize that less than a century and a quarter ago an anticlerical mob tried to interrupt Pope Pius IX rsquo s funeral procession determined to throw the pope rsquo s corpse into the Tiber And it seems like ancient hi
Books
I do not often agree with Michael Novak but the subtitle of his new book attracted me anyone willing to show that Samuel Huntington rsquo s dramatic prediction of a clash of civilizations is wrong is someone I want very much to read Unfortunately Novak mentions Huntington only in passing and neve
My sister is leaving her husband. The last intact marriage of my dad’s six children is coming apart in the face of her husband’s bizarre symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. My brother-in-law returned from Vietnam with multiple decorations, including two purple hearts. He also bro
Were he still alive to celebrate his 100th birthday this year, Josef Pieper would probably be surprised to see that today there is greater need than ever for some of his major insights. In today’s workaholic culture, Pieper’s small masterpiece Leisure: The Basis of Culture remains an ant
Editorials
Gregory Lee Johnson turned up in Dallas, Tex., for the Republican National Convention in 1984. To show his contempt for the policies of the Reagan administration, Mr. Johnson burned an American flag, while other demonstrators shouted approval. A Texas criminal court convicted Mr. Johnson of flag des
When I got married at the relatively advanced age of 42, I wore my mother’s satin wedding dress from 1946, as my three sisters had done. I also carried her prayer book, wore borrowed pearls and tossed the bouquet. Since my father had died years before, my two brothers accompanied me down the a
Books
In Dynamic Equivalence The Living Language of Christian Worship Father Keith Pecklers offers a fascinating narrative of the mid-20th-century Vernacular Society in the United States interwoven with the larger history of vernacular worship in the church The whole story is framed by an opening chap
Faith in Focus
I can’t remember exactly how old I was, but from what I have learned, that’s not unusual. I must have been 10 or 11, in the fourth or fifth grade at a small parochial school. I was an altar boy, and it was while serving at 6:30 Mass before school one morning that I first met him. He was
I am cutting circles out of bright orange construction paper and turning them into jack-o’-lanterns. As the pile of scraps grows higher, I find myself thoroughly enjoying the unusual challenge of using magic markers to make scary-looking teeth. A few months ago, I volunteered to take over bull
As I begin my seventh year of cell-to-cell ministry on Florida’s death row, it is not surprising that I am frequently asked to speak to Catholic audiences on the realities of the American death penalty. Most invitations are from Catholics who are sincerely interested in the truth, but who know
Letters
Society Owes Them
In Adults Left Behind (10/11), William J. Byron, S.J., observes that adults now unable to read were perhaps failed by their schools when they were children, and points out that society owes them something now. Many of those who could not read in school then dropped out of school, went to the streets, drifted into drugs and crime and found themselves in prison. Some of them also had learning disabilities (like dyslexia) and had little support from dysfunctional families. It has been estimated that 40 percent of inmates in state prisons cannot read adequately, and an abnormal percentage of them have learning difficulties.
This is another case of finding the root cause of symptoms and trying to do something about it. Society owes these people a better effort to overcome their disabilities, educate them and enable them to survive productively in society.
Rudy Cypser
The Word
There is within every living being an innate tendency to cling to life and flourish It is no different with human beings In fact it is this passion for life that often causes us anxiety in the face of death The value that various peoples ascribe to the human spirit can be seen in the practices w
FaithFaith and Reason
In his textbook of moral theology, Henry Davis, an English Jesuit theologian, wrote that of all the principles of moral theology, the principle of material cooperation is the most difficult to apply. The principle is used to analyze the contribution one makes or the assistance one gives to the wrong
Books
The trouble with philosophers is that they think ideas are everything The trouble with Jungian psychologists is that they think timeless archetypes shape all human behavior James Hillman is both a philosopher and a Jungian psychologist and he is vulnerable to both charges but in this rambling r
Have you seen any angels lately? A whole crowd of people sighted one recently in Texas. I got the news in an urgent e-mail from my niece just a few days ago. “Uncle Bob,” she wrote, “we need your prayers. My daughter Jacquelyn and five of her friends were in a terrible accident las
News
U.S. Bishops to Vote on Adult Catechism, New Conference PresidentWhen the U.S. Catholic bishops meet in mid-November, they will be asked to approve a first-ever U.S. national catechism for adults and elect a new president to lead them for the next three years. They will also be asked to vote on join
If science and technology are left totally free, mankind can achieve an enhanced, transhuman future, rid of all pain and even free of death except by choice. At least that was the view of some 150 scientists, philosophers and engineers at the recent TransVision 2004 conference at the University of T