Immigration law has long been a specialty in which relatively few lawyers, members of Congress and even federal judges have true expertise. In 1996 Congress greatly increased the complexities of this body of law by enacting two statutes: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), and

When President Lyndon Johnson declared a war on poverty in 1964, the homeless did not appear in the nation’s vocabulary, except perhaps as bums or hobos. The visibility of homeless people increased in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, when nearly a half-million hospital beds were c

In his brief foreword to Ghislain Lafont rsquo s Imagining the Catholic Church Archbishop Rembert Weakland O S B calls attention to something that makes Lafont rsquo s voice different from other voices speaking today about the church Father Lafont does not think in words sentences and paragrap

Healing HeartsThanks for another fine article from the pen of Julie A. Collins, Virginity Lost and Found (5/21). In a fresh way, she continues to weave the advice of Ignatius into contemporary words as educators re-examine how to hear the beat of a teenage broken heart.Kathleen G. WillsAnnapolis, Md

You’ve heard the news, no doubt. The American family is changing. No, not just changing—it is being revolutionized. New models are replacing the old. The traditional family, announced one of the great newsweeklies, is fading fast. Who needs a husband? asks another. On the op-ed page of T

At a recent conference on managed care, one of the speakers, a physician, complained that all too often we don’t call patients “patients” any more. These days patients are referred to as either customers, consumers, clients or covered lives. As is often the case at such physician m

quot The world is on the verge of new and great changes Mr Scrooge You agree quot --Jacob Marley upon meeting Ebenezer Scrooge in George Minter rsquo s 1951 film A Christmas Carol The above epigraph alluding to the social economic cultural and political upheaval of the Industrial Revolutio

Pope Visits UkrainePaying tribute to Ukrainians who endured decades of repression and assuring the nation’s Orthodox majority of his respect for their faith and fidelity, Pope John Paul II ended his long-awaited visit to Ukraine. Over the course of the visit on June 23-27, the pope drew larger

As a fellow theologian, Jon Nilson has my great respect. As a soothsayer and prophet of doom (America, 5/28) he has my respectful but well-considered disagreement. Catholic higher education is so vigorous as a result of wrestling with ill-matched, superimposed rules that it would take much more than

Alison is nearly three years old. She was adopted last year by a single woman, Shannon, who is a campus minister at a Jesuit college. Both mother and adopted daughter have curly blond hair, round blue eyes, and fair skinthey look so alike that most people assume they are biologically related. This i

A silver anniversary is evocative of endurance along (one hopes) with bearing fruit, bonding and blessings. Such evocations and reminiscences came to mind this year on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the National Association for Lay Ministry, a Catholic organization in which I was active for

Bishops Tackle Liturgy, Global Warming, Mideast, MandatumThe U.S. Catholic bishops tackled issues ranging from global warming to the Middle East crisis, from liturgy to doctrine to moral teaching at their spring meeting on June 14-16 in Atlanta, Ga. The meeting was their final session under the name

Nearly a century ago W E B Du Bois predicted that the problem of the 20th century would be the problem of the color line This was no less the problem of the 19th century But the contours of racism drastically changed in the 20th century as blacks moved north to Detroit and Chicago from the pla

St. Francis de Sales, the patron of my religious community, once said, I am as human as anyone could possibly be. Encouraged by this very open disclosure by one of the great saints and doctors of the church, I have been spending a good bit of time these past several years reacquainting myself with t

WHEN ROBERT KENNEDY was attorney general of the United States, he and his family frequently attended Sunday Mass in the auditorium of a large public high school in Arlington, Va. The local parish was newly created, and Virginia saw no problems in renting the auditorium to the parish while its new ch

We pastors have been meeting in focus groups around the country, trying to cope with the stress and strains of pastoral leadership. Though a small group, only 50 in all, we are from seven different parts of the country and represent the feelings and desires of many other pastors like ourselves. Afte

Anyone who thinks that biblical scholarship is a dry academic discipline dealing with ancient texts whose privileged position has long been accepted and whose interpretation over the centuries is pretty well established should read this book The interpretation of the Bible is in fact in ferment m