Privacy has no enemies Its friends date back at least to St Thomas Aquinas who wrote nemo tenetur seipsum accusare mdash ldquo no one is obliged to accuse himself rdquo Is privacy destined to erode because of the electronic footprints of e-mail the Internet cell phones and the vast amounts of

It is a truism that Americans spend more than we need to and consume more than we have to. But doesn’t it seem that our desire to consume superfluous goods has lately grown to alarming proportions? The other day, for example, I caught a TV commercial for Fit. In case you’ve not yet been

Forgive my having recourse just aboveto the legalistic idiom. Forgivemy having chosen to pursue a measuredargument, and in such lax verse. Forgiveas well my penchant for ironic tone,for all my insufficiencies—those fewcommitted here, the many others—there.  And now that you are in t

It is tempting to assess the modern debate over Social Security according to what any proposed changes will do for each of us personally. But many people, if not most, want a more principled approach to considering what, if anything, needs to be reformed. To these I suggest that there is a solid civ

Ex Corde Ecclesiae the Vatican document issued by John Paul II on Aug 15 1990 describes the relationship that should exist between the Catholic Church and Catholic colleges and universities throughout the world Even before that document was issued there had been considerable discussion and deb

Christians, Muslims in Bethlehem Hold March for PeaceFor the first time in almost two months Manger Square and the streets of Bethlehem were filled with people after dark as several hundred people participated in a candlelight march to protest Israeli-Palestinian clashes. In the last few months Beth

In his way out the door my husband, Shawn, looks at me with honest concern in his eyes. Are you going to be okay? Yes, I bravely try to assure him, choking back a few tears while holding our beautiful new baby girl on my lap. He is off to work and will drop our two older girls at their respective da

Martin Marty the church historian and trusted commentator on American religious life has recently spearheaded a three-year multi-pronged national conversation about religion and public life Under the sponsorship of the Pew Charitable Trust Marty rsquo s symposia focus groups and probes of this

Faith on the EarthThe Rev. Donald Cozzens’s excellent article (11/4) points out that forces and factors are both pushing and pulling at today’s priests. True. But it seems to me that the various stresses confronting today’s priests may correctly be condensed into one single urgency

Last July 6 the Vatican once again reaffirmed the church’s rule that prohibits divorced Catholics from receiving Communion if they have remarried while bound by a valid previous marriage. The declaration no doubt disappointed divorced Catholics who hope to remarry one day. With half of America

What really got under my skin about Beverly Donofrio rsquo s Looking for Mary came toward the end Returned from Medjugorje to Los Angeles she has stocked up on rosaries she brought to one of the alleged apparitions so she can hand them out as souvenirs and good luck charms The souvenir part I g

The percentage of Americans living in poverty is the lowest it has been in over 20 years. Nevertheless, over against this positive news is the fact that a sixth of the nation’s children remain poor. Indeed, the Census Bureau has reported that poverty among children has actually deepened—

One thing that no one told me before ordination was that I would start having what a Jesuit friend refers to as Mass nightmares.Mass nightmares are similar to the dreams everyone seems to experience during school years, and sometimes beyond. For example: you’re sitting unsuspectingly in a clas

When I was a Jesuit scholastic teaching ethics at Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst University) in Kansas City over 30 years ago, a student presented me with a Yuletide advertisement for a new credit card. Its headline: What Gives? Mastercharge. I had spent a class analyzing ads, commenting on the co

More Than 60 Dead in Sudan BombingsMore than 60 people, most of them women and children, died in a series of bombing raids carried out by the Sudanese military on towns and schools in southern Sudan, a missionary news agency reported. The situation is becoming more serious day by day, Bishop Cesare

This volume presents the lectures of a seminar held at Fordham University rsquo s Graduate School of Education in 1999 a year that spawned several events celebrating the centennial of the Ratio Studiorum the program of the Society of Jesus for all its schools in 72 countries over the course of fou

The jubilee year dawned with the publication of the second U. S. edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Regrettably it continues to treat early Genesis accounts in a Tridentine fundamentalist light, completely avoiding any references to modern biblical exegesis or evolution. Its failure to