It shouldn t be a surprise to learn that Pope Benedict XVI s decision to refuse the resignations of Dubln auxillary bishops Eamonn Walsh and Bishop Raymond Field has unleashed an outpouring of outrage in Ireland The bishops had resigned at the urging of Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin who demand

The New York Times fleshes out the background of the folks behind the controversial Cordoba House perhaps itself a poor choice as it harkens back whatever planners contemporary intentions to Iberia s Islamic caliphate and deconstructs their efforts as a case study in poor public relations T

Back in the 60s when there was no Facebook and no iPhones teens had to handle their free time differently For the nerdish among them there were always good philosophy books to read That rsquo s how I happened to be reading the play Huis Clos rdquo No Exit by John Paul Sartre Although much

Taking a break from vacation for this public-service announcement Don t miss this forceful talk by Bishop Arthur Serratelli bishop nbsp of the diocese of Paterson nbsp N J to the National Leadership Roundtable on Church Management nbsp at their annual June meeting at the Wharton School in Phil

The neighborhood surrounding the Nativity Mission Center a Jesuit-run middle school on Manhattan s Lower East Side has undergone significant changes over the past few decades Increasing gentrification has resulted in positive changes like fewer worries about prostitutes or neighborhood drug deal

Cambridge MA A news report the other day about the killing of 10 aid workers in Afghanistan reported ldquo The director of International Assistance Mission Dirk Frans denies the Taliban s accusations that the members of his group were missionaries He says they were on a peaceful mission to help

A few months back I received some e-mail from Middle Eastern sources which argued that a military build-up on Israel s northern border meant preparations for a new war between Israel Hezbollah Lebanon and perhaps even Syria At the time the idea after such pointless bloodletting in 2006 and the c

A recent blogpost at CatholicCulture org formerly Catholic World News by Diogenes the anonymous blogger who loves to name names but never reveals his her true identity classy blames all the controversy in the past 50 years about Catholic politicians who do not march lock-step in accordance wit

Jake Martin SJ a Jesuit scholastic and frequent contributor to our pages and our webpages had a horror of what the French call les nbsp cin eacute astes nbsp those nbsp tr egrave s serieux scholars of film who wax poetic about Godard Rohmer Resnais Truffaut et al nbsp But the recently rem

The new issue of Vanity Fair includes a brief and eloquent piece by the inimitable Christopher Hitchens on his cancer diagnosis and treatment it is a must-read for anyone who loves or hates Hitchens musings on any number of subjects nbsp The prognosis sounds grim and Hitchens does not flinch

There s been some debate in the U K over who should pay for the upcoming papal visit According to the BBC nbsp The total bill for the invited visit mdash without the cost of police and security mdash is estimated by the Foreign Office to be about pound 15m Of this pound 7m will come from t

Looking for some good solid basic inviting user-friendly books on the faith nbsp My friend Msgr Peter Vaghi a nbsp fine writer indefatigable priest and pastor of Little Flower Church in Bethesda Md is hard at work on a fine new series of books on our faith that would prove inordinately u

America is pleased to announce our formal partnership with Mirada Global a multilingual Web site that brings together articles from Jesuit publications in North and South America Like America Mirada Global is for the general reader not academics and covers a variety of subjects from religion a

ldquo Ever since childhood when I lived within earshot of the Boston and Maine I have seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it rdquo Paul Theroux and I share this memory only I lived near the tracks of the Chicago and North Western ldquo Those whistles sing bewitchment railways

During my travels to New Orleans this past June I saw first-hand the good work that Catholic Charities of New Orleans is doing to help those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf including Chris Nelhig the fisherman pictured at right Catholic Charities has provided food rent assistance and cou

This month on newsstands and in bookstores you ll find a terrific new book which I highly recommend To coincide with the centennial of the birth of Mother Teresa Time has published nbsp Mother Teresa at 100 The Life and Works of a Modern Saint It s a fantastic introduction to her life writte

Some interesting news from my alma mater Yale Divinity School From the press release A scholarship in honor of the late Henri Nouwen who taught at Yale Divinity School for a decade beginning in 1971 has been established through a gift of 300 000 from a University benefactor who wishes to remai

In loving memory of the feast of St Ignatius on July 31 may I suggest a visit to the good Jesuits buried at the former St Andrew s Seminary now the Culinary Institute of America The institute is on Route 9 in Hyde Park New York Among those buried there is the paleontologist Teilhard de Chardi

A fine new movie Lebanon the winner of the 2009 Venice Film Festival has just been released in the States nbsp John McCarthy in a review on our online Culture section calls it bracing operatic and vivid nbsp His review begins Wolfgang Petersen rsquo s 1981 submarine thriller Das