The United States is going to wage a war against terrorists, says President George W. Bush. Is this a just war according to the principles of the Catholic just war theory? For this issue we asked experts in the just war theory to examine this question and present their views.Before looking at the U.

We want to thank all our readers and friends who expressed their sympathy and concern in numerous letters and e-mails. In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, it was good to know that we had friends praying for us all over the world.Our residence-office building is about

In the first years of the 20th century Alois Alzheimer a German neurologist cared for a middle-aged woman with a marked personality change characterized by bizarre behavior and memory loss This woman died about five years after he first met her years characterized by an inexorable decline to a

Tuesday, Sept. 11, may have changed everything. The unprecedented violence perpetrated against the United States now demands, many claim, an unprecedented response. In light of this horrific attack and understandable citizen outrage, it is not surprising that the composition of that response is bein

To write about Sept. 11, 2001, is to know the paucity of one’s vocabulary and literary skill. The words are so disproportionate to the tragedy that the temptation is to stop trying to describe it. John Paul II condemned it as an unspeakable horror and a dark day in the history of humanity, a t

Friday, Sept. 14On my second day at the site that the press now calls ground zero, it has become more difficult to gain access, even in a Roman collar. Today at Chelsea Piers, a sports arena turned supply warehouse, I hitch a ride in a huge tractor-trailer with two ironworkers from New Jersey. Becau

Vatican Signals Wider, Qualified Support for U.S. Military Action As Pope John Paul II made a four-day visit to Central Asia, the Vatican appeared to signal a wider—though still qualified—margin of support for eventual U.S. military action against terrorists around the globe. The pope&#8

Combining archetypal psychology ecclesiology and ethics Eugene Kennedy in his latest book The Unhealed Wound sets out a disturbing vision of church malaise rooted in the distorted transference of sexual energy into power and manipulation Kennedy uses the analogy of the wounded Grail King of the

In the language of the Western just war tradition, the attacks of Sept. 11 were indiscriminatethey (at least, those on the World Trade Center) involved a direct and intentional attack against civilians. But Osama bin Laden appeals to the tradition of Islam; he holds that such attacks are not only pe

All too often significant court cases fail to arouse universal interest Confusing jargon and endless deliberations conspire to numb the public to these cases despite their importance The class-action suit known as Wilder which plodded through courts for 26 years could have been one of thema ca

R my Rougeau has written a fresh and surprising narrative about the monastic life It is a novel or perhaps a series of linked short stories But form is not what counts here The odd angle of vision is what makes this book worthwhile Rougeau rsquo s story deals with young Paul Seneschal a Canad

From a high ridge in Nimule, Sudan, I looked across a quiet valley to the Nile Riverthe source of life for thousands who pull their living from its muddy waters. In a patch of yellow grass a few feet from where I stood lay the tarnished casings of spent artillery shells, fired only recently at plane

Two days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, I made my way to one of the emergency trauma centers in Manhattan. It had been hastily set up in a cavernous sports facility called Chelsea Piers, on the Hudson River. I had been there earlier, on the evening of Sept. 11, still stunned f

Forgive the ponderous title. As a veteran reviewer, I do recognize the limits of my role. Ordinarily, I would try to find a mildly entertaining way to remind readers that Francis Coppola’s Apocalypse Now received a warm if not enthusiastic welcome when it first appeared in 1979. I would conclu

Nation Moves from Terror to PrayerAmericans moved quickly from shock and terror to prayer after suicidal terrorists used hijacked passenger planes to demolish the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a large section of the Pentagon. On Sept. 16 worshippers packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral i

Visiting friends in New England recently I listened to their lament about parish life Boring liturgies irrelevant homilies insipid musicall this from devout Catholics tempted to bolt to a local Protestant church for a feeling of community and worship It rsquo s a familiar scenario to most of us

In a recent article in America (Patient No More, 7/16), Kevin W. Wildes, S.J., our friend and colleague at Georgetown University, celebrated a requiem for the traditional, patient-centered ethic of medicine. In its place he proposed a new ethic of social contract, one oriented to societal need rathe

There are times when even an atheist must ask, Who or what can save us from our plight? Sometimes the great rages of the earth, the physical evils of earthquake and tidal wave prompt the question. More often, it is the appalling moral evil of the human heart. Who can save humanity from itself?Even t

Look to TeensAs I read “‘Home Alone’ in the Priesthood,” by Monsignor Eugene Gomulka (8/27), I was struck by a rather distressing thought: “They complain endlessly about the lack of new blood in the priesthood and its effects, but they never seem to propose anything to

The bridge over the St. Lawrence River in Canada hangs in the twilight, a connection to some different sense of time and space. It is the summer of 2000 and my last day in Montreal. I’ve been invited by a French Canadian friend to travel with him across the river. My plan is to visit Kahnawake