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Editorials
Fifty Years of Progress
The Editors
On May 17, 1954, neither the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, nor anyone else, could have predicted that 50 years later both the U.S. secretary of state and the president’s national security advisor would be African-Americans. But on that Monday morning, the court announced its decisio
Books
Jump-Starting the Parish
John Gillespie
A few years ago when Paul Wilkes wrote Excellent Catholic Parishes The Guide to Best Places and Practices and later when he penned Excellent Protestant Congregations he was not primarily interested in theory trends or statistics Rather he observed the approaches and programs in several hundr
Magazine
Catholics and Candidates
Matt Malone, S.J.
Senator John F. Kennedy walked into the grand ballroom of Houston’s Rice Hotel with one goal: to put to rest the notion that a Roman Catholic should not be elected president of the United States. It was September 1960, and many Americans were wary of electing a Catholic. Most non-Catholics vie
Against Tobacco, For Life
Michael H. Crosby
In August 2003, thousands of tobacco-control and health advocates converged upon Helsinki, Finland, for the 11th World Conference on Tobacco or Health. I was the only “official” Roman Catholic attending. Three months later, in mid-December 2003, I attended the National Conference on Toba
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Canon Law on Sanctions Leaves Much to Interpret People on one side ask why bishops don’t stop certain Catholic politicians from receiving Communion or even excommunicate them.Aren’t they openly defying church teaching on the most important subjectthe right to life? If such politicians do
Books
Two-Part Harmony
Kathleen Sprows Cummings
American Catholics and Civic Engagement is the first of two volumes published by American Catholics in the Public Square a three-year project funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts Peter Steinfels rsquo introduction sketches the historical background behind the ongoing struggle of Roman Catholics to
Can the Church Learn From Wal-Mart?
Frederick W. Gluck
With over one million employees, the Catholic Church in the United States is comparable in size to Wal-Mart, but it still follows a feudal model of governance and management. This may be adequate to protect religious orthodoxy, but it is not equal to the task of managing a worldwide enterprise that
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Means to Solidarity

How is it possible that so few Americans are aware of the horror in northern Uganda: since 1988, nearly 20,000 children abducted, more than one million civilians living away from their homes in squalid camps? Thank you for trying to inform them (Child Soldiers and the Lord’s Resistance Army, 3/29).

Thanks too for Rwanda Ten Years Later (4/19) and your editorial urging the need for the American public to be better informed about African politics. The U.S. bishops argued for such self-education and involvement in public policy in their November 2001 A Call to Solidarity with Africa. Unfortunately, very few American Catholics, even professionals in ministry, seem to have heard of this. A student in our Jesuit school in Bukavu, Congo, recently asked me, Why do your people know so little about us, when we know so much about America?

To counterbalance the usual bad news, your authors also highlight the hopeful antidotesso many beautiful, faith-filled people here who struggle daily to combat the heavy forces against them (including, too often, some from the civilized world). I long for the day when Africa begins to get the good attention that so many Americans gave to Latin America in the 1980’s. Africa also has heroic witnesses to the faith, even martyrs worthy of canonization. At a recent Mass in Rwanda, I heard the large, mostly young adult congregation singing, You are at the center of our lives; you are alive. Immediately after the genocide in 1994, the Africa bishops proclaimed, The Risen Christ Is Our Hope.

The U.S. bishops remind us of the power of prayer but go on to advocate more diocesan/parish twinning (including Catholic schools and retreat houses). For those to whom it applies, they call for more corporate responsibility and responsible investment. Could my company/investment somehow be making things even worse for those who are already poor? What about my country?

Finally, I have come to learn that there is no better means to solidarity than personal contact, trying to get to know some Africans in the United States or, even better, somewhere here.

Tony Wach, S.J.

The Word
Dream the Impossible Dream
Dianne Bergant
We might be tempted to laugh at the naive optimism of Don Quixote who though considered ridiculous saw himself as a champion of the vulnerable But is he really so far removed from us As children we may have envisioned ourselves as an astronaut hero Miss America or the batter who wins the Worl
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
They say you can stay on the subway all night.” So commented a middle-aged homeless man to me on a particularly cold evening at a subway station in the Manhattan neighborhood of East Harlem. Warmly bundled up myself, I was sitting on a bench facing the tracks and noticed him because he was sta
Voting Conscience
John F. Kavanaugh
Over the past few weeks I have had friends plead with me, Please don’t vote for Nader again. You will be giving the vote to Bush. You will be giving the vote to Kerry. There’s my problem: I don’t want to give my vote to either of them. Such words could infuriate readers as well as
Books
Sightings, Signs and Wonders
Robert McClory
It is difficult to imagine two books about the same subject more dissimilar than these Randall Sullivan rsquo s The Miracle Detective is a drawn-out tour de force rivaling The Da Vinci Code in length digressions and clues that ultimately don rsquo t go anywhere Lisa Schwebel rsquo s Apparitions
Germany's Unwelcome Guests
Paul J. Fitzgerald
Freed nearly a decade and a half ago from its dividing and restraining wall, Berlin has largely succeeded in moving beyond the siege mentality of the cold war period. It has become once again not only the political capital of Germany but a cultural center of gravity for Europe as well, especially in
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Gregory: Denying Communion Over Abortion Is Last Resort"Denying Communion to a politician like Senator John F. Kerry, who supports legalized abortion, must be the last resort in a process to persuade the politician to uphold moral truths when voting," said the president of the U.S. Confere
Why Go to Mass?
John F. Baldovin
Not every Mass is going to be a great and deeply moving experience, not for the vast majority of us anyway. But there is a great deal to be said for simple fidelity to our worship. St. Ignatius Loyola says in the Spiritual Exercises that the person who is experiencing some desolation (dryness, &ldqu
The Word
What Does It Mean?
Dianne Bergant
When I was a child I often wondered how far up Jesus had to ascend before he got to heaven Later I was dumbfounded when as an adult I read an astronaut rsquo s comment about not seeing any traces in space of Jesus rsquo ascension It is not that I have a clearer understanding of this mystery th
Letters
Letters
Our readers

cartoon by pat byrnes

Natural Method

I was exceedingly pleased to read in Signs of the Times (4/5) that Pope John Paul II said, The administration of water and food, even when delivered using artificial means, always represents a natural method of preserving life and not a medical act. What a relief. All these years I thought the church held that things artificial were not naturalas in artificial birth control.

Michael Ducar

Books
A New Landscape in Ministry
Rose Zuzworsky
Two faith questions guiding Kathleen Hope Brown rsquo s small but timely and comprehensive book Who is God and Who am I are worthy considerations for us all Who am I as minister is a question within those questions and a fundamental starting point for this text aimed at lay leaders of prayer in
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Drew Christiansen
I was startled. One of my Jesuit confreres had just introduced me to a fellow graduate student, not by name but as “our superior.” We were classmates; we lived in a small community, but somehow I had turned from Drew into “Father Superior.” I was no longer an individual. I wa
Liturgical Differences
David Haschka
Once again, the church is entering a critical period of renewal and reform of liturgical language and practice. In March 2003, the translation and application for the United States of the 2001 edition of the General Instruction of the Roman Missal was approved by the Holy See, and a translation of t