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Bookings By Raymond A. Schroth The best travel writing is usually about something else—not just been-there and saw-that. There is an inner voyage, even for the atheist, a spiritual experience—if not an encounter with God at least a glimpse into the mystery of life embodied in crumbling w
Books
A new novel relates the the life and loves of a contemporary priest.
Signs Of the Times
The ruling ensures that the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion shields churches from laws meant to end employment discrimination.
Signs Of the Times
While economic growth in Latin America continues, many of its poorest citizens complain the benefits have passed them by.
This week, Doris Donnelly reviews Vestments, a new novel about a young priest struggling with his vocation. Here she offers a few classic novels featuring a priest protagonist.
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (1940)
An unnamed whiskey priest is on the run from a Mexican state that has outlawed the church. All other priests have fled or been rounded up and shot. Stripped of his life of pampered privilege, and in a haze of alcohol and fear, the priest is unwittingly tugged to minister to needy peasants while eluding an intense lieutenant who is determined to rid his country from all seeds of corruption planted by the church. The paradox of strength in weakness has probably never been novelized better than here by Greene.
In All Things
My recent post on Mitt Romney rsquo s staggering wealth and his own perception that President Obama is trying to stir resentment among voters because of it generated a good bit of discussion on my claim that For all its ills capitalism seems to be the best way for individuals to thrive socially
Arts & CultureIn All Things
In his memoir novel A Million Little Pieces first pitched as the latter then sold and made famous as the former then eventually exposed as largely the latter author James Frey tells the harrowing tale of undergoing a double root canal without any anesthetic nbsp It rsquo s one of the most cri
In All Things
I rsquo ve spent much of the past week working through the Obama Administration rsquo s decision to not expand the religious employer exemptions for HHS mandated preventative health services nbsp I believe President Obama and Secretary Sebelius made the wrong decision nbsp These regulations crea
In All Things
Newsweek revved us up for both the State of the Union address and the coming election campaign with two articles Andrew Sullivan January 16 tries to show how President Obama rsquo s long game will outsmart his critics When he took office the United States was losing 750 000 jobs a month ldquo
The Good Word
The First Mass took place in a small Eastern Kansas farming community its citizens equally divided between Catholics and Mennonites I was there as the vocation director for the Diocese of Dodge City which Fr Jim the newly ordained had joined while working in the western part of the state A
In All Things
The Washington Post published an editorial on the recent HHS decision that would require Catholic affiliated non-church institutions to offer contraception coverage in employee health plans The best approach would have been for HHS to stick to its original conclusion that contraception coverage sh
In All Things
Earlier this week after a couple startling missteps leading up to his trouncing in the South Carolina GOP primary Gov Mitt Romney released his personal income tax information covering the previous two years In a tradition curiously enough started by his father during his run for the White House
In All Things
CNN asked about religion and humor and put together this fun video which includes some great images--and clips from The Colbert Report and two Monty Python films nbsp Also an article that talks about Jesus and humor nbsp nbsp Here rsquo s a serious question about levity The Bibl
In All Things
Pope Benedict has devoted his 2012 World Communications Day message to the topic of Silence and Word The Path of Evangelization It s an interesting an fruitful topic for a Communications Day message nbsp It nbsp touches both upon the theological concerns that are Benedict s forte and very con
In All Things
The New York Times front page report about Mitt Romney rsquo s two year tax return released to the public this morning answers a few of the questions and topics raised by readers of my recent blog 1 19 The Hedge Fund Loophole First question Was this the loophole how Mr Romney made most of
In All Things
Over at the American Mental Health Foundation America contributor William Van Ornum looks at anxiety and autism in the film Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Finally Hollywood has discovered a good man with the right stuff to play the part of an incredibly loving father who happens to be a gra
In All Things
Today is the official launch of The Jesuit Post a cool new website founded and run by young Jesuits or more accurately Jesuits in formation that hopes to cover Jesus politics and pop-culture the Catholic Church sports and Socrates More Jesus than Socrates of course but you get the i
In All Things
Cambridge MA The other day someone asked me ldquo Is enlightenment compatible with Christian faith rdquo It was at an interreligious gathering where I had just spoken on my experience of encountering Hinduism in its various forms and surely my questioner was thinking of enlightenment as a dec