Every parish priest and university chaplain knows the story. The young couple visits their pastor to make arrangements for their wedding. The pastor begins to ask the questions on the prenuptial questionnaire. The young man gives his address and later the young woman. It appears they live at the sam

As an apostolic religious sister formed in the post-Vatican II style of religious life, I live my vowed life while engaged quite actively in the world rather than apart from it. Gone are the days of the separation of contemplative sisters by a cloister, which protected us from the temptations that p

But Mousie thou art no thy laneIn proving foresight may be vain The best-laid schemes o rsquo mice and menGang aft a-gley An rsquo lea rsquo e us nought but grief an rsquo painFor promis rsquo d joy Robert Burns To a Mouse 1786Robert Burns rsquo s reflections have entered the language as a pr

The United Nations Millennium Summit last month aroused no enthusiasm at Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, The New York Post. The paper’s pundits were heavily sarcastic. In a Sunday roundup of the events of the first week in September, Linda Stasi claimed that environmental scientists had discov

The pages of America have lately been filled with articles on the question of liturgical translations. Bishop Donald W. Trautman, former chairman of the N.C.C.B Committee on Liturgy, and Cardinal Jorge A. Medina, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, have

Word and ImageIt’s laudable thatwith everything else the Rev. Andrew M. Greeley is able to accomplishhe keeps up with the times and what is going on in the world around him (9/16). Father Greeley has such vital enthusiasm. Would that all of us noticed as well the beautiful skies in the photos

If Professor Fogel were giving his students a multiple-choice test on the new egalitarianism one likely question would be Which is the greater agent of equity in prosperous America He would probably present five choices a federal government b transnational corporations c trade unions d th

Editor’s note: In Germany, candidates for teaching positions in Catholic theology at universities and seminaries must receive a mandatum (nihil obstat) from a bishop. Since these academic positions are state appointments, this use of the nihil obstat arose over the last century in order to pre

Pity poor Kansas! Deposited there in the dead center of the country, propping up Nebraska and oppressing Oklahoma, the state has been typecast by Hollywood screenwriters. When a poor girl gets bonked on the head, she hies out of Kansas as fast as her red slippers or white sneakers will carry her. Ev

One of the interests that I share with my father is a taste for what the British used to call ripping good yarns, that is, stories of high adventure. My father and I are far from alone in our interest. A glance at recent best-seller lists will reveal a surprising number of adventure tales nestled am

On the first Sunday of the new millennium, I went to my parents’ usual church, Our Lady of Good Voyage in Gloucester, Mass. On the second Sunday I knelt, freezing, below the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome and listened to a Latin Mass sung in purest Gregorian chant. On the third, I sat demu

Who are the young people most at risk-these days for crime? They tend to be the black and brown fatherless youth who inhabit our inner cities, and who lack mentors, ministers and monitors. The absence of responsible authoritative adults in their lives, in addition to poverty and the lack of educatio

The author of this book takes a simple idea and makes the best of it The idea is to use the tried and true metaphor of the life of faith as a journey on which difficulties chronically deter pilgrims who return to the starting gate over and over McGrath understands well this frustration because he

Bunnies RuleMore bunnies, please, out of James Martin’s hat (Of Many Things, 8/26)! Peter Cottontail with Karl Rahner and Father Martin’s nephew made me laugh today - again!Mary Anne ZakSuffield, Conn. Manifesting CommunityThomas J. McCarthy’s column (7/29) struck a very famil

How should the Catholic Church in the United States respond to what some have labeled the gay agenda? One way would be simply to restate what has been declared repeatedly. This approach, however, may not meet the challenge. The so-called gay agenda has been in the making roughly since 1969, when the

Stanley Jaki possesses impressive credentials for discussing the challenges Newman faced in his day and that he poses to our own Jaki holds doctorates in theology and physics has published extensively on the history of philosophy and science and is laden with honors Gifford Lectures Templeton P

George Lucas’s “Star Wars” has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry, including sequels, prequels and a limitless array of paraphernalia. It’s a juggernaut that shows no sign of abating. Few ideas have captured the popular imagination quite the way it has. National missile