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A Time to Lament
John F. Kavanaugh
Twenty years ago I worked in Zimbabwe. It was a joy. Filling in for a philosophy professor at the major seminary in Chishawasha, not far from the capital city, Harare, I encountered a group of uncommonly eager and bright students, thrilled to discuss the history of the early church, intent on seeing
How (Not) to Preach
James J. DiGiacomo

Most Catholics love to argue. Once you get past the Apostles’ Creed, there are very few things all will agree on. One is that they want to hear good homilies. Unfortunately, Catholics are often disappointed. Here, then, are a few suggestions for preachers, to help them feed the flock of Christ without leaving the people hungry or suffering from religious indigestion.

Faith in Focus
Face to Face
Michael O. Garvey
Often he has said that if just one word were to be inscribed on his tombstone, he would like it to be priest. As Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., president emeritus of the University of Notre Dame, begins his 91st year on this side of that monument, it is obvious that he means it. Impressively taking i
Arts & CultureBooks
Transformed in Gods Embrace
Daniel J. Harrington
The Bible presents many ldquo explanations rdquo for suffering punishment for sin part of the human condition a test of character a discipline to make us better persons an element in God rsquo s mysterious plan and so on But does the Bible contain a distinctively Christ-centered approach to
Editorials
The World Is Watching
The Editors
The massacre at Virginia Tech drew shocked comment not only in the United States, but from the media in other countries as well. Canada’s Globe and Mail, for example, noted that even as deadly a massacre as the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 failed to bring about a n
The Pope in Brazil
Ricardo Ramirez
Much of the Catholic world turns its attention this month to the Brazilian town of Aparecida, where the fifth General Conference of the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopates takes place from May 13 to 31. Pope Benedict XVI is making his first visit to the Americas as pope to open the conference,
Prenatal Testing
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Recently, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommended that all pregnant women receive prenatal testing for Down syndrome. When Down syndrome is identified during pregnancy, however, the pregnancy termination rate grows to an estimated 90 percent, which leaves those of us who
Poetry
Conversation Postscript
Mary Catherine Vukimanic
after you had gone,
The Word
Unity and Witness
Daniel J. Harrington
The Scripture readings during this Easter season have led us to reflect on ways in which the movement begun by the earthly Jesus has continued They have included personal and communal relationship with the risen Jesus efforts at fulfilling Jesus rsquo command to love God and one another and the h
Arts & CultureBooks
A Lifestyle in Trouble?'
Robert Reilly
In this thought-provoking study Brother Patrick Hart former secretary to Thomas Merton has drawn from a notable list of collaborators a full spectrum of ideas on the future of monasticism In his Introduction Dom Bernardo Olivera O C S O warns that if monastic life is not continually updated
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Drew Christiansen
Among the books I would list as must-read but too-little-known is Ronald G. Musto’s The Catholic Peace Tradition (Orbis, 1986; Peace Books, 2002). A history of 2000 years of Catholic peacemaking, it is a vast survey from which I never cease to learn. The sheer accumulation of information gives
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Papal Visit to Conference in Brazil Begins May 9Pope Benedict XVI is making his first trip to the Western Hemisphere in mid-May, traveling to Brazil to open a strategizing session with Latin American bishops. The May 9-13 visit begins with a string of pastoral events in São Paulo, where the pope wi
Bentham's Mummy and Stem Cells
John D. Hagen, Jr.
The skeletal body of Jeremy Bentham sits on public display in a glass-fronted case at University College London. Bentham, the founder of utilitarianism, left careful instructions for the use of his remains on his death in 1832. His body was to be used for a public medical lecture, then dissected, t
Film
Wondrous Stillness: Into Great Silence
Richard A. Blake
French theorists used to employ the term “pure cinema” to describe film as an entirely new art form of moving images. It struck directly at the senses and created its own experience, without reliance on older forms like literature, painting, music or photography. The theory provided the
Arts & CultureBooks
Onslaught of the Intolerant'
Mark E. Rondeau
The first impulse of many particularly on the right will be to dismiss this book immediately upon reading its title Indeed by mentioning the political F- word and linking it with a war on America Hedges takes to a new level an already ongoing critique of the Christian right developed in a spate
Current Comment
Current Comment
The Editors
Adult Believers Over the years “not confusing the faithful” has become an all-purpose bromide for checking theological speculation and reducing the role of theology in the church to elementary catechesis. This policy frequently harmed the authority of the church among educated Catholics
Columns
Broken Promises
Maryann Cusimano Love
Jesús is a 22-year-old Colombian who was forced from his home by the decades-old civil war. He and others in his village were captured by the paramilitaries in 2005. They were massed into a forced death march. At gunpoint, they were made to dig graves for the dead. Jesús said, I never knew when I
Advice for College Grads -- Part II
Jim McDermott
You Are a Child of God British A. Robinson is the director for public-private partnerships in the Office of U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator at the U.S. Department of State and the former director of social and international ministries for the Jesuit Conference in the United States.   In his inaug
Letters
Letters

Unaccountable Journalism

Paul Rusesabagina, the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda, writes in his book An Ordinary Man, Words are the most powerful tools of all, and especially the words that we pass to those who come after us. In a speech at Wake Forest University on April 4, 2007, Mr. Rusesabagina reiterated this point. With that in mind, I agree with America’s recent Current Comment, Unrepentant Media (4/30), which appropriately speaks of the shallow moralism that drives media coverage of the news here in the United States. Lives, reputations, hopes for a future with truth and reconciliation are too often disrupted and sometimes even crushed by the irresponsible reporting and the inappropriate use of words that has become all too commonplace in the U.S. media today. I applaud America for asking the talking heads...to take a hard look at themselves and the harm wrought by today’s unaccountable journalism of personal destruction. Words are powerful tools! I implore the media to use these powerful tools more responsibly, and I thank the writers and editors of America for doing just that.

Michael Lorentsen, O.F.M.Conv.

Arts & CultureBooks
The Tears in Things
Peter Heinegg
Holocaust literature that grimmest of subgenres may be said to have begun with Primo Levi 8217 s devastating and indispensable though wretchedly translated Survival in Auschwitz 1947 But Levi was little read at first not until the trial of Adolf Eichmann unforgettably reported by Hannah Ar