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Editorials
Gun Control
The Editors
Last fall’s sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area brought gun control briefly back into the national consciousness. In the wake of those attacks, the Maryland Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend—who holds an impressive track record on gun safety—mad
Pacem in Terris: A Permanent Commitment: Message for the World Day of Peace
Pope John Paul, II
Pope John Paul II's World Day of Peace message for 2003 marked the 40th anniversary of 'Pacem in Terris.'
Poetry
Questions About Courtship
Todd James Pierce

Dear mother, I would like to clear up some things

Books
Statesman and Strategist
Nancy J. Curtin
Winston Churchill is defined by historyhe studied it he wrote it and he made it While the notion that great men shape the course of human events is somewhat outmoded among professional historians Churchill transformed Britain rsquo s darkest hour in 1940 into its finest Inspiring Britons with hi
The Word
The Long and the Short of It
Dianne Bergant
Job seems so pessimistic Life is a drudgery I am assigned months of misery I am filled with restlessness Will this ever end And in the next breath he declares My days are swifter than a weaver rsquo s shuttle my life is like the wind Where did the time go nbsp And that is the long and sho
The Next Christianity
Peter C. Phan
In his book The Next Christendom (2002) and his recent article “The Next Christianity” (Atlantic Monthly, October 2002), Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University, argues that the current crisis in the Catholic Church, broug
Books
Inclusive Pluralism
Peter C. Phan
Very likely the first question that will pop into the minds of readers of this latest and third book by Jacques Dupuis on the theology of religions is this How well has its author answered the charges by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that his previous work Toward a Christian Theo
Thirty Years After
John F. Kavanaugh
They showed the ad again, a week before thousands would traipse off to Washington. The advertisement was not about the Pro-Life demonstration, and yet it had everything to do with it. In the middle of Tim Russert’s Meet the Press, General Electric presented, once again, a riveting commercial f
Editorials
Dividend Tax Cut
The Editors
In all of human history it would be difficult to find an example of a country that cut taxes as it prepared to go to war. But this is exactly what President Bush now proposes to do. In a worst-case scenario, the U.S. military may find itself under fire in three countries: Iraq, Korea and Afghanistan
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
March for Life Speakers Enthused About Congress, PresidentSpeakers at the kickoff rally on Jan. 22 for the 30th annual March for Life in Washington, D.C., expressed optimism that the current Republican-dominated Congress and White House could change abortion laws in this country. “For eight ye
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Appalachia stands out as a section of the eastern United States long regarded as a symbol of poverty and exploitation. But as several visitors from Wheeling Jesuit University observed during a visit to America House, it also represents a proud people with a strong tradition and culture. The visitors
Faith
Remembering the Poor: An Interview with Gustavo Gutierrez
Daniel Hartnett
Each year the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences announces the incorporation of new members. This year’s list of honorary fellows includes the world-renowned Peruvian theologian Gustavo Gutiérrez, O.P., who is best known for his book A Theology of Liberation (Span. 1971,
Beyond La Pausa Liberation Theologies Live
Allan Figueroa Deck
A veritable “theological feast” took place from Nov. 10 to 13, 2002, at the University of Notre Dame, at a conference called “The Option for the Poor in Christian Theology.” The conference was the brainchild of two Notre Dame theology professors, Daniel Groody, C.S.C., and th
Faith in Focus
Hold On to What Is Good: Home
Richard J. Rodeheffer
It was an unexceptional Catholic childhood in the Rochester, N.Y., of the 1950’s: St. Boniface parochial school, the family rosary (for the conversion of Communist Russia), pennies placed in our cardboard collection boxes to save pagan babies and serving as an altar boy. Although we had neighb
Books
ToleranceThen Solidarity
Todd David Whitmore
The Common Good and Christian Ethics by David Hollenbach S J deserves to be the most read work of American Catholic public philosophy since the late John Courtney Murray rsquo s We Hold These Truths published in 1960 Both Murray and Hollenbach point to pluralism as a given The problem each i
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Keener Comprehension

One of your correspondents (Letters, 1/6) was outraged that the severe penances practiced by Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha were described in a favorable tone in the Of Many Things column on Dec. 2, 2002, by George M. Anderson, S.J. I think the correspondent is forgetting that things were viewed in a different light 300 years ago. Among us, pain is practically a dirty word. We do not wish to suffer a minute of it, and we believe that our doctors should immediately find medications and treatments to relieve us of it. But years ago, pain was simply a fact of life. This was well known to Blessed Kateri. But her deep faith enabled her to understand that the pain Jesus suffered was not a necessary part of our divine Lord’s life; she knew he had suffered pain willingly for our salvation, and she was grateful for that. And her love encouraged her to be like him; since he had suffered, she wished to suffer with him.

Furthermore, saint that she was, she had a much keener comprehension than we do of her human failings, and saw them as more grievous than they really were, or than we would be willing to acknowledge. Her faith made her want to suffer in order to resemble her suffering Savior, but also to make reparation for her failings and those of people who had not responded to the love Jesus poured out for us.

In speaking as he did of Kateri’s penances, I don’t believe Father Anderson was saying, Go thou and do likewise. Rather, he was presenting this indication of the depth of Kateri’s love and devotion that we might admire it and be moved, in our own modern way, toward a similar devotion to him who has loved us so much.

John J. Paret, S.J.

Habla Ingles?
Ernest R. Freeman
The New York Times recently published a book review about a biography of the writer Neil Bissoondath. The reviewer mentions that Bissoondath dedicated his book, Doing the Heart Good, to his uncle and mentor, who had warned him that race is a trap; to make that the center of your worldview limits you
Arts & CultureFilm
Melting Pot: Gangs of New York
Richard A. Blake
Not long ago a distant cousin, a genealogy buff, sent me an antique clipping from a local paper about a possible ancestor on trial for murder. In the labor wars of the 19th century, scabs did not have much longevity in the Irish factory towns of the Middle West. This long-forgotten enforcer simply p
Editorials
Pacem in Terris 40 Years Later
The Editors
Pope John Paul II’s message for this year’s World Day of Peace, Jan. 1, 2003, anticipates the 40th anniversary of Blessed Pope John XXIII’s landmark encyclical Pacem in Terris in April. At a time when the world seems more troubled than at any time since the collapse of Communism in
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, often stays at America House when she comes to New York. She was here last fall for the opening of the opera based on her book, which recounts her experiences as spiritual advisor to men on death row. What we spoke of, though, was not so much the ope