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The Word
We are coming close to the end of one church year and the beginning of another Next Sunday is the feast of Christ the King and the following Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent On these Sundays the Scripture readings lead us to consider ldquo the last things rdquo or what is often called ldqu
Of Many Things
'I puzzled, as I walked across the U.S. Capitol grounds, over the building in the distance. Was that where I was headed? It was certainly distinctive, with a large, story-high lip overhanging the east face. As I drew closer, I could see the south wall undulating in soothing waves. Then the wall
News
Brazilian Cardinal to Head Clergy CongregationPope Benedict XVI has named Cardinal Claudio Hummes of S o Paulo Brazil a Franciscan to be the new prefect of the Congregation for Clergy The 72-year-old Brazilian-born son of German immigrants Cardinal Hummes will succeed Cardinal Dar o Castrill
Along with the roughly 2,800 American men and women who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, 26,000 have been injured, some of them permanently disabled. The news media tend to focus on those who have died, but what about the stories of soldiers who have been disabled? The scope of the question was br
Orrin Hatch, Utah’s Republican senior senator, is a firm opponent of abortion. He is also a firm supporter of research on embryonic stem cells, even though this involves destruction of the embryos. The senator’s reasons for this latter position are mainly two. He believes, as he has said
Film
The Departed is a puzzling name for Martin Scorsese’s remake of the Hong Kong crime action movie “Infernal Affairs” (Lau and Mak, 2002). The term generally refers to dead people. As the film progresses through its two-and-a-half-hour tour of the mean streets of working-class Boston
Arts & CultureBooks
In 1969 the Apollo astronaut Edwin Aldrin described the ldquo magnificent desolation rdquo of the moon As the United States reflects on its lengthening wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this Veterans Day the issue of how most appropriately to honor soldiers who have died in battle is elevated profoun
Current Comment
Checks and BalancesTypically, Americans think of governmental checks and balances as the interplay among the executive, legislative and judicial branches. But when all three branches lean toward the same political party and have the ideological cohesion to override minority views (as has been the ca
Columns
A light has gone out in the house next door. The elderly gentleman who lived there was a friend as well as a neighbor. A light in his porch always assured us that he was well. I really miss that light each night now as darkness falls. In some small way a light has gone out in the world too, because
He neither asks for money nor passes out donation envelopes after his speeches. He neither wants pity for his situation nor accolades for his work. He speaks to anyone who will listen and his mission is to encourage others to get their hands dirty for peace. I am a Palestinian, a proud Palestinian,
Arts & CultureBooks
This memoir begins with Patricia Hampl rsquo s accidental viewing of the Matisse painting Woman Before an Aquarium which waylaid her on her way to the cafeteria of the Chicago Art Institute to meet a friend some 34 years ago She stood transfixed absorbing the portrait of a woman gazing at a goldf
Arts & CultureBooks
The Conservative Soul is a dense passionate argument for a simple thesis In the United States true conservatism has been hijacked by the forces of fundamentalism rendering the Republican Party increasingly unacceptable to principled conservatives In Andrew Sullivan rsquo s narrative fundamenta
Editorials
Since Americans pay more for health insurance and health care than do people in most other highly developed countries, it is reasonable to ask: Are we getting our money’s worth, if value is measured by a long and presumably healthy life? Are our national health expenditures a good investment,
The Arab oil embargo of 1973, initiated to protest U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War, was a watershed event in U.S. energy history. It sparked higher gasoline prices and, before it was lifted in March 1974, raised concerns about a possible energy crisis. But ethical issues relating to wor
The Word
He central characters in Mark rsquo s Gospel are Jesus and the Twelve though a number of minor characters are spread throughout the entire narrative At the end of Chapter 10 however a series of lesser characters emerge who in contrast to the Twelve who become increasingly obtuse respond to J
Letters
Lesser Love
Twice now during the past week, a squirrel has eaten away parts of my windowsill and gnawed four-inch holes in the screen to facilitate its entry to my house.
Yes, I have read with appreciation Mary Oliver’s poem Making the House Ready for the Lord (9/25). Come in, come in, she says to animals seeking shelter as winter dawns on a snowy world.
And what is my response? Unlike the poet, I have for God’s creatures who live out there in my yard a lesser and imperfect love that stops upon my doorstep. Beyond that boundary I offer a crust of last night’s pizza, nuts and suet, apples, whole wheat bread crumbs. To these you are welcome. Help yourself, I say, but keep your distance. This house is mine. For the limits to my hospitality, may the Lord forgive me.
And another thing: Stop digging up my daffodils.
Katharine Byrne
Arts & CultureBooks
These days as I a citizen by right of birth of the United States and Ireland wheel my grandson Navid a citizen by right of birth of the United States and Iran through my local shopping mall I look about at people of all shades and shapes and combinations wishing a world of justice and harmon
Arts & CultureBooks
Given the literary scandal that more or less led Edna O rsquo Brien to flee Ireland following the publication of her Country Girls trilogy in the 1960 rsquo s it would have been understandable if she had spent the rest of her life bashing Ireland and writing books about noble outsiders persecuted b
Of Many Things
It isn’t often that you get the chance to help a new literary sensation. A few years ago, I got a friendly note from Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit who was studying theology in Kenya. Uwem had written an article for America in November 1996 with the felicitous title “Nigerian Roman Cathol
News
Mideast Patriarchs Address InstabilityCatholic patriarchs of the Middle East said political instability across the region must be tackled if the current Christian exodus is to be stemmed. The negative impact of this instability on local economies and services, as well as on the psychology within com