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Letters
Mother’s Good Example
Enclosed is a picture of my mother at the age of 99 reading America. She read it from cover to cover for as long as I can remember. Although at this time she needed help to get out of bed, she needed no help to read and ponder and pray with America magazine. My father was a graduate of Brooklyn Prep and Xavier College in Manhattan.
I am trying to follow their example and read America from cover to cover.
Elizabeth Hillmann, R.C.
The Word
Only Luke recounts the story of Christ rsquo s ascension and it often seems a puzzling feast A number of years ago I attended a children rsquo s liturgy in a vibrant parish The priest told the children that he had bought a special gift to celebrate Ascension Thursday and asked them to guess what
Books
Who speaks for America Today for Tony Smith the answer clearly is American ethnic groups because they play a larger role in the shaping of the foreign policy of the United States than most recognize That impact he fears is largely negative and in his new book Foreign Attachments The Power o
Of Many Things
In late March, New York City's Catholic Workers hosted a Sunday afternoon presentation by two human rights workers from Colombia. After celebrating the noon Mass at Nativity Church, I walked over to nearby St Joseph House to hear them speak of the negative impact there of U.S. military aid. Regu
Samuel Kofi Woods II is an attorney who has been actively involved in human rights activities in Liberia since the mid-1980’s. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Benemerenti medal awarded by Pope John Paul II in 1999 and a human rights award from Reebok in 1994. He is also on
Urgent calls are going out once again for massive food and other humanitarian aid to Sudan. Yet a group of Catholic missionaries working in the “liberated areas” of South Sudan refuse to accept famine, human suffering and dependence on international charity as the permanent lot of Sudane
Two of the most troubling aspects of American society today are the high rate of divorce and the fact that divorce in one generation increases the likelihood of divorce in the next. Current divorce statistics indicate that most divorces occur for couples married less than five years and that the pro
The Word
During the Easter season the readings celebrate the joy of the resurrection which culminates at Pentecost with the enduring gift of the Holy Spirit The readings from Acts recount the Spirit-directed spread of the Gospel and the almost idyllic life of the early church even amid suffering and perse
Books
People tend to look back and read history including their personal stories as inevitable Historians particularly those willing to ask What if can occasionally help us see the way that certain events might have been otherwise how much they depended on a gossamer tissue of contingencies not on
News
Catholic Schools Educate Well at Half the Cost, Study ShowsCatholic schools in Los Angeles give low-income and minority children a quality education at half the cost of public schools, according to a new study released on April 26 in Los Angeles. The study, by the San Francisco-based Pacific Researc
Columns
Awake now! So goes my two-year-old’s announcement every morning around 6. She wakes up, crawls out of bed, walks down the hall into our room and, putting her face as close to mine as she possibly can, declares the entire truth as she sees it at that moment. It is a microcosm of her every actio
Editorials
The Bush presidency’s foreign policy has yet to take shape. Environmental and energy policy is solidifying, on the other hand, at too rapid a rate. The president reversed his campaign promise to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, and unilaterally withdrew from th
Books
Aristotle was such a dope He misled generations of critics into thinking that art imitates nature Anyone who goes to the movies knows that art imitates other art Tom Hanks doesn rsquo t imitate anyone in the real world he imitates Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda Murders Indian wars and invasions
Saint Benevolens parish just got the dreaded word. As of next June, St. Ben’s will cease to be a parish. To appreciate this situation, there are some things you should know. St. Ben’s parishionersit’s a real placehave had three pastors in the past four years. They have survived a s
Like little green shoots, small church communities are emerging all over the Catholic parish landscape. They are one of the more promising pastoral initiatives at work in U.S. parishes today. In an individualistic and consumerist culture, whose spirit in some respects infects the very way we do pari
The first ratings of clerical performance by the laity occurred almost a half century ago in a study by Catholic Digest, which was in fact the first sample survey ever of American religion. At that time 40 percent of Americans, whether Protestant or Catholic, rated their clergy as “excellent&r
Books
This is not the first book on the liturgy from Joseph Ratzinger a German Catholic theologian cardinal prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and former archbishop of Munich He has also written A New Song for the Lord as well as an important introduction to Klaus Gamber
WARNING: In this essay I use the terms conservative and liberal that no one likes. I don’t like those labels! everyone says, implying (whether intentionally or not) that their own position is too complex and nuanced to be captured by something so simplistic as a one-word label. I use those lab
News
Pope Clears Way for Beatification of 27 Ukrainian MartyrsJust seven weeks after the local study of 27 Ukrainian martyrs ended, Pope John Paul II cleared the way for their beatification during his trip to their homeland on June 23-27. The Vatican published the decrees recognizing the martyrdom of the
Letters
God-Sent
I was just at your Web site and found you now have search capabilities by topic. I hoped someday it would be done. My prayers have been answered. Thank you. Now my growing shelf of saved hard-copy issues can more easily be accessed during discussions with friends and family. Please tell your print readers about this new service. It is a godsend.
Paul Schmid