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FaithFaith and Reason
Ways of Salvation?
Francis A. Sullivan
Jacques Dupuis is a Belgian Jesuit who taught theology for over 30 years in India before joining the faculty at the Gregorian University in Rome, where we were colleagues during the last decades of my professorship there. His many years in India gave him the experience of being a member of the Chris
Columns
The Ultimate Sanctum
Thomas J. McCarthy
Having scaled the steep rock mass to gain a panorama of the canyon, I stood facing an expanse of parched earth that seemed to be without end. My heart pounded, not because of the climb but because, from my precipitous perch on the edge of this overhanging slab, I could not afford the slightest misst
Through the Year With Butler
Lawrence S. Cunningham
Two 18th-century expatriate Catholic priests living in the seminary at Douai in France produced some works that subsequently had a seminal impact on the lives of English-speaking Catholics that endures to this day. Richard Challoner (1691-1781) revised the old Douai-Rheims version of the Bible (orig
Books
Lonely Lula
Gerald T. Cobb
Carson McCullers described her distinguished novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter as the story of five isolated lonely people in their search for expression and spiritual integration with something greater than themselves This thematic preoccupation combined with the fact that McCullers lived for a
Books
Mary, Quite Contrary
Sally Cunneen
This short enthusiastic explanation of why and how Catholics should come to know Mary the mother of Jesus through better acquaintance with her types in the Hebrew Scriptures obviously springs from true devotion The author Scott Hahn formerly a Presbyterian minister and now a professor of theolog
Simone Weil's Last Journey
Terry Tastard
Nearly 60 years ago an ocean liner from North Africa nudged its way into New York harbor bearing hundreds of exhausted Jewish refugees from Vichy France. Among them was a pale, intense teacher of philosophy with only a year to liveSimone Weil. At that time she was almost unknown outside France. Sinc
Books
Jimmy, We Hardly Knew Ye
Peter Heinegg
Most Americans who were adults during the Carter administration probably remember Jimmy Carter as a well-intentioned if somewhat inept politician a policy wonk avant la lettre who presided over 20 percent inflation and the Iran hostage debacle Since then of course he has become an admired huma
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Worldwide Hunger Picture Still Bleak, Says Bread for WorldGrim realities about hunger worldwide are detailed in Foreign Aid to End Hunger, a report issued by Bread for the World Institute in Washington. The report urges President Bush and Congress to allocate an additional $1 billion a year in U.S.
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Mature Support

In his article Coming Out’ as a Catholic School Teacher (3/19), Gerald D. Coleman, S.S., makes some valid points. He indicates, for example, that it is not right for a mature adult to depend upon adolescents for emotional support and that young students should not be required to cope with matters beyond their level of maturity.

But, if homosexuals should not suffer from prejudice against their basic human rights, and if they have a right to respect, friendship and justice, why must their orientation be kept a secret? There is a further question. What does Father Coleman propose to do if a teacher ignores his advice and does come out? Officially, the church has declared that the homosexual orientation is an objective disorder, but it does not level any sanctions against persons merely because they have the disorder. Should a person who comes out be fired? What for? The violation of a prohibition against revealing one’s sexual orientation, or the imprudence of doing so? The loss of credibility as a role model? If these reasons will not suffice for dismissal, must the institution launch an investigation to prove that the individual is sexually active?

James Cosgrove

Film
Memory and Regret: Faithless
Richard A. Blake
Many years ago, decades in fact, I was the object of an extraordinary kindness. In the very act of accepting this favor, however, I reacted with a remark of stupefying insensitivity. My benefactor recoiled visibly. The damage once done could not be undone. To describe the exchange in more detail wou
Books
He's No Gandhi
John Dear
War is wrong Mahatma Gandhi wrote It has got to go Peace will never come until the great powers courageously decide to disarm themselves Unless the world adopts nonviolence it will spell certain suicide for humanity Gandhi insisted that though history records an endless array of wars with count
Books
Cardinal Virtues
Richard J. Hauser
An alert for the unwary The Journey to Peace ought not be confused with The Gift of Peace Loyola Press 1997 though both are authored by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago and were occasioned by the sufferings of his final years Bernardin died Nov 11 1996 The Gift of Peace is Bern
Bush's Faith-Based Initiative
Joseph M. Sullivan
From 2001, Bishop Joseph M. Sullivan on the government, the church and the poor. Bishop Sullivan died last month.
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Patricia A. Kossmann
Among my most cherished childhood memories are visits to the local branch of Queens Borough Public Library, where peace and quiet reignedexcept for the occasional chair squeaking across the floor, or the loud whisperer, or the crashing book, which violations of the peace were dutifully corrected by
FaithEditorials
Due Process in the Church
The Editors
The recent investigation and trial of the theologian Jacques Dupuis, S.J., alerted Catholics and others to the judicial methods of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (Am., 3/12, Signs of the Times).
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
My mother was an immigrant, and ever since coming to New York a few years ago, I have wanted to visit Ellis Island. Now I have been there twice within the past year—last June and then on a bitterly cold day during Christmas week. My mother was luckier than most immigrants. Having grown up in t
Letters
Letters
Our readers

People Before Profits

The article by Thomas J. Massaro, S.J., and Mary Jo Bane, Compassion in Action: A Letter to President Bush on Social Policy (3/12), was much needed. In recent weeks public dialogue has focused on across-the-board tax cuts and other proposals that do little to foster a just economic system in our country.

The electorate should impress upon President Bush and Congress the need for an economy that provides access to jobs and services that enable all people to support themselves and care for their families. We also need assurance that natural resources are protected for the universal common good in a sustainable and mutually beneficial way.

In short, we need an economic system that focuses on people before profits, a sustainable economy that addresses the needs of present and future generations. If people take up pen and paper now to demand this of their elected officials, we can all play a part in achieving this vision of economic justice.

Kathy Thornton, R.S.M.

Editorials
Missile Defense Follies
The Editors
It is understandable that at first glance the idea of a national missile defense system is appealing. It promises perfect safety, rendering obsolete the madness of nuclear deterrence based on mutual assured destruction. If the system were to work, the threat of some enemy from across the ocean pulve
Books
We Remember
George F. Giacomini, Jr.
These are two very different books on a similar topic Rychlak rsquo s is the lawyer rsquo s brief Phayer rsquo s the scholarly monograph Both approach Pope Pius XII from the standpoint of Vatican diplomacy Rychlak concludes that the criticism of Pius XII for not speaking out against Hitler and t
A Harsh Light
James S. Torrens, S.J.
Traffic, an Academy Awards nominee film directed by Steven Soderbergh, is a rapid-fire saga of the drug trade and of stumbling binational efforts to stop it. It is also a dark-hued morality play. The drug trading and the violence in Traffic take place on both sides of the border crossing between Tij