Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Clear filter
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Vatican to Release Some WW II Archival Material EarlyThe Vatican announced it would open ahead of schedule part of its 20th-century archives, including new documents on Vatican-German relations and Pope Pius XII’s efforts to help prisoners during World War II. The Vatican said cataloguing the
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Call them keepsakes or mementos, most of us hold on to various objects as reminders of people we have cared about over the years—often friends who have died. I prefer “memento” because of its clearer relationship to the word “memory.” Coming across them from time to tim
The Word
Seeing With the Inner Eye
John R. Donahue
The feast of Tabernacles Sukkoth was one of the great celebrations of the Jewish liturgical calendar at the time of Jesus as it is today It was celebrated as an autumn harvest festival and people built little booths or tents that recalled the way they had dwelt during their wilderness wandering
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Moral Compass

Thanks for your editorial Enron and Morality (2/11). Teaching corporate finance, investment analysis and portfolio construction and management established that the model of wealth maximization is worthwhile and shares the attributes of all economic models. It is a great engine for discovery, and it is flawed because it abstracts from people in a humanistic sense. Students were often reminded of that absence as emphasis was placed on their integrity, grounded in rigorous honesty, not necessarily as codified by due diligence or full disclosure.

As trustees of a religious-sponsored retirement plan, we were mindful of two things: 1) our independence of the sponsoring corporation and 2) the need to be sensitive to the work of the employees whose money was in the plan. It would have been both facile and deleterious to separate investment policies and decisions from the hard-earned money of the janitorial staff, nurses, administrators and others. It was their dough over which we had a fiduciary responsibility. Although it was not explicitly stated, as I look back on it now, we saw 1) our fiduciary responsibility as grounded not just in civil law but primarily in the law of Christ and 2) that work is noble because of the nobility of the workerthat is, their work and their retirement plan were the continuation of God’s creation. Such was the moral compass.

Charles A. D’Ambrosio

Film
Coping: In the Bedroom
Richard A. Blake
For the last several months images of heroism have filled the media. The immediate heroes, the firefighters, police and rescue workers, have gradually been supplanted by brave survivors, mourning the dead and living for the future. Their stories have helped us through the horror, especially in this
Books
Let Them Live!
Michael J. Kerlin
In Humanity A Moral History of the Twentieth Century Jonathan Glover made his quot moral history quot above all an account of the wars international and civil in which human beings killed one another throughout the century The book made for interesting appalling and enlightening reading Yet
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Chinese Documents Detail Crackdown on ReligionSeven top-secret Chinese documents detailing government plans to crack down on religion were smuggled out of China and published on Feb. 11. The government documents, issued between April 1999 and October 2001, detail the goals and actions of China&rsquo
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Heart of the Gospel

Thanks to John R. Donahue, S.J., for a precise surgical reflection on the Gospel, Jesus in the Dock (2/11). It cuts directly to the heart of the matter. The Word column is the first thing I read, and I am never disappointed. Now that I am teaching Scripture, the reflections offered there are priceless to me.

Jane Ward

Editorials
More Hunger, More Homelessness
The Editors
Hunger and homelessnessmore and more Americans are feeling the cruel effects of both these painful phenomena. Such is the overall conclusion of the U.S. mayors’ annual Status Report on Hunger and Homelessness, issued each December as a survey of over two dozen cities. The current report docume
FaithThe Word
High Noon
John R. Donahue
For Christ, while we were still godless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6)
Books
On Pilgrimage With the Other
Michael McGarry
Following another rsquo s spiritual journey can be a voyeuristic undertaking Like sampling diverse liturgies one can as an aloof observer watch others worship making insightful observations about their correctness or oddity But like engaging liturgy one can also accompany the other to find w
Why Catholics Fast: Searching for the Tradition
Carole Garibaldi Rogers
At a friend’s home a few years ago, I sat across the dining table from a Muslim woman who had been born in Egypt and had lived in many cities around the world. Ramadan had recently ended; Lent would shortly begin, and fasting became a topic of conversation. She spoke knowledgeably about Islam&
Capitalist Conscience
John F. Kavanaugh
At the risk of being rounded up as a Taliban sympathizer, I propose that President Bush is dressing up a boondoggle for the rich as a patriotic budget, wrapped in the American flag. Be patriotic and buy. Be patriotic and fly. Be patriotic and be quiet. Observing the Enron debacle, one can almost und
Books
His Excellency, His Eminence
Tom OBrien
America rsquo s Bishop the first full biography of Fulton Sheen holds a candle to its subject The prose does not burn the page Trying to outshine a shooting star is doomed to failure For all his solid scholarship however Thomas C Reeves gives us fast and focused narrative Although loaded wi
Do Good People Need Confession?
Edward Collins Vacek
More than one perplexed priest has asked me: "What should I do when people come to confession and say they have nothing to confess?" It used to be that when people had not been to confession in years, they would offer a lengthy list of sins. Or longtime sinners would say, "You name it
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
James Martin, S.J.
When I was growing up in suburban Philadelphia in the 1960’s and 1970’s, most of my friends were Jewish. I can say with confidence that I went to more seders than novenas, and attended more bat and bar mitzvahs than First Communion parties. At one point, I had been to so many bar mitzvah
Culture
Books for Lenten Reading
Emilie Griffin
I once had a spiritual director who told me that A Lent missed is a year lost from the spiritual life. Every year at this time, those words come winging back. And often my best Lenten devotion flows from reading. Here are a few reflective titles that seem worth mention for these 40 days.Philip Yance
The Word
A Voice From the Mountaintop
John R. Donahue
As a diptych to the story of the temptation of Jesus the Transfiguration is always proclaimed on the Second Sunday of Lent The title masks its deeper meaning since the earliest English use of quot transfiguration quot is for the feast and the word rarely appears in quot secular quot discours
Books
In Fedya's Footsteps
Peter Heinegg
Perhaps the least helpful statement in Susan Sontag rsquo s otherwise indispensable introduction to Summer in Baden-Baden is her peremptory opening declaration that she would include it among the most beautiful exalting and original achievements of a century rsquo s worth of fiction and para-fic
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Young Adult Catholics Know Little About ReligiousYoung adult Catholics generally have a positive opinion of men and women religious, but many do not know a great deal about them, according to a new national study. Only one-third of those surveyed, for example, said they knew the difference between d