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Faith in Focus
The Least of These
Lorraine V. Murray
I spotted the baby in the gardening section of the store. While his parents were scrutinizing tomato plants, the baby perched in his stroller, watching intently. He had a head of lazy blond curls, stout legs and a round face. What a beautiful boy! I exclaimed, and both parents smiled proudly. He cou
Editorials
Foreign Policy After Jan. 20
The Editors
On election night last November, PBS-TV’s NewsHour With Jim Lehrer asked three veteran journalists to size up the media’s coverage of the presidential race. Marvin Kalb, who directs a center at Harvard University for the study of the press and politics, complained that foreign policy had
The Word
Turning Toward
John R. Donahue
Rarely are the three Lectionary readings so integrated as they are this Sunday They all portray Gods call though in diverse and dramatic fashion Isaiah the confidant of kings receives Gods call in an overwhelming vision of the Holy One in the temple and responds simply Here I am send me Paul
Books
The Shaping of a Literary Life
Eileen Z. Cohen
George Orwell commented in his Confessions of a Book Reviewer that reviewing was a thankless task Jeffrey Meyers reports in Orwell Wintry Conscience of a Generation that Orwell learned to skip expertly through these worthless texts Had Orwell been given Meyers rsquo s biography to review he woul
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
In Final Jubilee Document, Pope Outlines Vision of Church’s PathIn a final document on the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, Pope John Paul II revisited highlights of the Holy Year and suggested how its spiritual gifts can help lead others to the Gospel. The apostolic letter, titled Novo Millenn
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Much Missed

A word of thanks to you for the wonderful Of Many Things column by James Martin, S.J., about women as disciples (1/8). It both humbles and energizes me to read your words. I live and pray with the belief that the church will experience a conversion and recognize how much is missed without the direct leadership of women, both lay and religious.

Ellen Smith, R.S.M.

A Pro-Life Strategy of Persuasion
Harry J. Byrne
The United States bishops in their 1999 statement, Faithful Citizenship, called on Catholics and all citizens to stay involved in public life...and participate in the debates and choices... and for voters to examine the position of candidates on a full range of issues....Central to the bishops&rsquo
Books
Technology and the Moral Order
T. Patrick Hill
This is a book that promises much but delivers relatively little at least if we are to take the authors declared intentions at their face value We are told unambiguously in the preface that Recreating Medicine is intended to be on the cutting edge of the new medical ethics issues of our time Urgi
The Word
Turning Away
John R. Donahue
Todays readings exemplify the diversity of Scripture Jeremiah and Luke express the strong biblical motif of the prophet called by God but opposed and rejected by those to whom he is sent Each reading has overtones of violence Jeremiah is told to gird up his loins that he will be a pillar of iro
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Thomas J. Reese
As I write this column, Pope John Paul II is celebrating the end of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 on the feast of the Epiphany. I must admit that I dont get very excited about celebrating events like this, and the constant reference to jubilee wore thin as the year progressed. Part of my hesita
Columns
Immigration and the Borderless Economy
Terry Golway
Nobody seems quite sure what the immigrant-returning immigrant ratio might be today, but I suspect it is higher than most people might think. Labor is following the lead of capitalit is fickle, it follows the market, and it is decidedly unsentimental. To cite just one example: thousands of Irish imm
A Call to Global Action
James D. Wolfensohn
The new millennium, with all its promise of change, presents us with a profound challenge: how to stem the rising incidence of global poverty. It is surely a major piece of unfinished business carried over from the previous century—how to give the poorest people of the world real hope for a be
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
James Martin, S.J.
Certainly one of the most surprising revelations in my life has been my experience with women religious. Before entering religious life I cherished the same notions about sisters that much of the American public does. They were - as I understood from the media, popular culture and even popular Catho
Columns
Renew the Face of the Earth!
Valerie Schultz
Our Renew 2000 group met yesterday. The seven of us talked about the Eucharist: its implication in our daily lives, as well as its liturgical meaning and beauty. Then we went to work at the parish food pantry. We are between seasons of Renew, which is a small-group, faith-sharing program in which ma
The Word
A Different Kind of Inauguration 1
John R. Donahue
In the early church the Epiphany cycle included other manifestations of Jesushis baptism and the wedding at Cana Today rsquo s liturgy focuses on the third manifestation the wedding feast at Cana the first of Jesus rsquo signs that is symbols of the divine power at work in the incarnate Word
Letters
Letters
Our readers

In Good Faith

In his carefully reasoned examination of the recent case of the conjoined twins Jodie and Mary (12/2), Daniel P. Sulmasy, O.F.M., M.D., criticizes British medical arrogance, narrow pastoral advice and judicial bullying. This is unfair.

I too deplore the doctors and courts removing this excruciating moral dilemma from the parents. And I regret that the courts supported the surgeons’ conviction that sacrificing Mary to save Jodie was the lesser evil. But the doctors and the judges, no less than the parents, acted in good faith.

First, the surgeons, bound by their profession to save life wherever possible and to seek the maximum good, acted out of this conviction and not from anti-religious prejudice. (Indeed, as we have just learned, one of the three surgeons at St. Mary’s Hospital is Catholic and another is evangelical.)

Second, while it is true the British judicial system is excessively influenced by utilitarianism and consequentialism, the appeal court made strenuous efforts to accommodate sanctity-of-life premises, and even took the unprecedented step of receiving ethical guidance from the Catholic Church. The judges accepted four out of five of the arguments made by Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O’Connor of Westminsteralthough they used them to come to a different conclusion.

As for narrow pastoral advice, I cannot see how the counsel offered by the church to the parents of the Siamese twins, either here or in their native Malta, could have been different. As Sulmasy accepts, double-effect doctrine does not apply in this case: Mary’s death was the means of prolonging Jodie’s life.

The basic Catholic premiseexplicitly upheld in European but not British lawis that the prohibition against taking innocent life trumps the obligation to preserve life whenever possible. If this view is narrow, the bedrock of civilization may not be as broad as we believe.

Austen Ivereigh

Foxfire Across the Border
James S. Torrens, S.J.
On Dec. 1, while George W. Bush and Al Gore were hacking their way through legal thickets, Vicente Fox Quesada strode into the presidency of the United States of Mexico. It was a holiday that elicited from Mexicans, whose history has made them very cautious, much more hope than they are used to feel
Editorials
Keys to Bipartisanship
The Editors
In his gracious concession speech, Vice President Al Gore showed himself to be a better loser than a campaigner. [W]hat remains of partisan rancor now must be put aside, he told the nation. Now, the political struggle is over and we turn again to the unending struggle for the common good of all Amer
The Word
A Different Kind of Inauguration 2
John R. Donahue
The Lectionary continues the theme of the initial manifestations of Jesus The Gospel joins the first words of Luke rsquo s Gospel to Jesus rsquo initial proclamation at Nazareth Luke states that his purpose is to produce a narrative or story in reliance on traditions handed down by eyewitnesses a
Catholic Fundraising: From December 23, 2000
Francis J.Butler
In These Pages: From Dec. 23, 2000