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

The Word
Dianne Bergant
It was only a few months ago that we reflected on religious leadership Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Today rsquo s readings place this theme before us again The frequency with which the Bible considers religious leadership points out both its importance and its challenge Because of human
Arts & CultureBooks
Paul Wachter
Increasingly the literary genre of the memoir has come to be associated with the second-rate politician and fourth-rate celebrity In a self-obsessed confessional world the memoir mdash and its Internet derivative the blog mdash has tweaked Descartes rsquo famous maxim I write therefore I am
John F. Kavanaugh
I have often wondered about the long-range value of writing, whether books or articles. It is certainly true that some novels and non-fiction works have shaped my own life, as I was recently reminded when a community of graduate students and professors traded the titles of books that were transforma
Yona Metzger
A well-known Jewish parable tells the story of a young man who was hiking on a journey. It was common at that time to follow signposts, which displayed the names of various destinations and pointed in different directions. At one particular crossroads on his way, the young man found the signpost had
Rabbi Leon Klenicki
The Latin words nostra aetate mean “in our time,” a fitting opening phrase for the declaration promulgated by the Second Vatican Council in 1965 that has truly transformed our time. In Nostra Aetate the Catholic Church accepted that those of different faith communities, the “others
The Word
Dianne Bergant
There are some events that we would give anything to attend Who would not want to go to a presidential inaugural ball the Super Bowl or a World Series or the installation of a pope Though very different these are all momentous occasions and invitations to them are hard to come by One usually h
Arts & CultureBooks
David G. Hunter
For more than 20 years James J O rsquo Donnell has been a leading figure in Augustinian studies Best known for his three-volume commentary on the Confessions Oxford 1992 O rsquo Donnell has also pioneered the use of the Internet for humanistic study A decade ago while professor of classics at
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
A subway ride marks the beginning of my work days at America, and given the diversity of the nearly four million passengers who use New York City’s subway system each day, it offers an ever-varying picture of humanity. For commuters like me, the actual ride does not begin on the subway car its
News
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Newly Beatified German Cardinal Feared God More Than Man, Pope SaysCardinal Clemens August von Galen of Münster, Germany, an outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler’s regime, feared God more than man, Pope Benedict XVI said moments after the cardinal was beatified. All of us, but especially we Germa
Letters

Platform for Grace

As staff theologian for Cardinal Joseph Bernardin from 1985 until his death, I commend the editorial A Culture of Life (9/25) for reminding us once again of Cardinal Bernardin’s efforts with regard to a consistent ethic of life. In particular I applaud the observation that no one image or idea can bear the weight of the whole conversation. No one was more aware of this than the cardinal.

As regards images, for example, the cardinal spoke of his dying as his most important homily. The photos of the frail, dying cardinal anointing the sick, after having been anointed himself, and the stories of his ministry to fellow cancer patients evoked a sense of peace that only God could give and no homily could explain.

As regards ideas, the vocabulary of consistent ethic was complemented by other proposals such as the Common Ground Initiative. A church torn by acrimony could not be a credible witness or effective partner in public discourse about protecting and enhancing human dignity.

What held so much of this together was a hopefulness that was captured, in a small measure, in his pastoral on Catholic health care, A Sign of Hope, a hope sustained by the conviction that because of God’s love for us we can live with confidence in the midst of alienation and chaos. I would suggest that without hopefulness our attempts to explore symbols and stories, as you helpfully propose, will be less than effective. Bernardin’s hopefulness was quite personal: as inviting as his blue eyes and as robust as the operas he loved. But it also reflected his appropriation of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, in particular the image of the church as leaven. Redemption was possible in a sinful world.

As this conciliar perspective is replaced by a profound pessimism about what some consider to be the moral bankruptcy of the United States and western Europe, Bernardin’s hopefulness is viewed as being outdated, if not dangerous. Without hopefulness, it is understandable that the complexity of a consistent ethic or the labors of Common Ground-type dialogue can seem to be a waste of time.

In a few weeks we will celebrate the ninth anniversary of Cardinal Bernardin’s death. Perhaps it is time for us to ask what does the Christian virtue of hope mean today. Is it nave to trust in that which is unseen, or is this the confidence that is an appropriate platform for God’s grace?

(Rev.) Michael D. Place

Michael Amaladoss
For the Catholic Church in India, Nostra Aetate came more as an encouragement than as a new beginning. In the 19th century, Hindus like Keshub Chandra Sen looked on Jesus as a guru who inspired them to reform their own religious tradition. One of them who became Christian, Brahmabandab Upadhyaya, th
Arts & CultureBooks
Two decades ago outside on the bow of a Norwegian ice-breaker other scientists and I drank cognac poured over 10 000-year-old ice from a nearby glacier Bundled up only miles from the North Pole we enjoyed an August sunset a break in our scientific meetings to develop policy for protecting the
Editorials
The Editors
On October 28, 1965, during the fourth and last session of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Pope Paul VI formally promulgated the council’s Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions. Like other documents promulgated by the council, it would be identified b
FaithFaith and Reason
Thomas Stransky
On this day in 1965, the Vatican II’s “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions,” also known as “Nostra Aetate,” was promulgated by the council—despite surprises, shocks and setbacks along the way.
Robert P. Maloney
What do we really know about the woman we call Mother of God and Mother of the Church, the first of all the saints, the model believer? What do contemporary Scripture studies, archaeological research and analysis of the literature of her time reveal to us about Mary? I invite the reader to reflect w
Of Many Things
Drew Christiansen
The late Pope John Paul II frequently called for a “new evangelization,” by which he meant the renewed preaching of the Gospel in regions long assumed to be Christian, like Europe and the Americas. Pope Benedict XVI continues these efforts. On Sept. 29, presidents of the 34 European epis
Damian J. Ference
The last piece of mail I opened that Friday afternoon was a large white envelope bearing the return address of the Diocese of Cleveland. Having already received a memorandum about this mailing, I tore into the rectangular package with curiosity. Inside, I found the newly released Standards of Conduc
Arts & CultureBooks
Julie Trocchlo
When I was in junior high I decided after reading every Cherry Ames book in the public library to become a nurse because nursing sounded interesting and fun I went to Georgetown University and discovered that nursing was professionally and intellectually challenging During my first job in a lar
Joseph J. Fahey
The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, is a remarkable summary of Catholic social teaching. Those who were disappointed with the abbreviated treatment of Catholic social thought in the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be d
Letters

Insights and Answers

Bishop Donald W. Trautman’s challenging article, Our Daily Bread (10/3), raised many concerns about the function of the World Synod of Bishops in pursuit of its mission. I urge him, once the current meeting of the synod is over, to give us the benefit of his insights and his answers, if there are any, to his questions.

John E. Dean