An article by Michelle Andrews in the New York Times May 31 reported that many employers are unwilling to extend health coverage up to age 26 for the adult children of their employee rsquo s until January 2011 when the federal law requires it Insurers eager to sell the add-on had led customers

As I mentioned a few weeks ago Jim McDermott S J former associate editor and current film studies student knows a great deal about comic-book culture nbsp And I d bet he d know whether saying comic-book culture or comic culture is the nbsp de rigueur His review of Kick-Ass was publis

Watching the young men working on the beach of Grande Terre a barrier island near Louisiana pleasure boat paradise Grand Isle you can almost feel the futility hanging in the air We scrape it up and five miniutes later the beach is covered again one worker says Still Ian Guidry is willing to

From Catholic News Service a surprising story La Civilta Cattolica the semi-official Vatican publication run by the Jesuits but whose contents are vetted by the Secretariat of State has praised the recently passed U S health care reform nbsp legislation nbsp The article by Andrea Vicini SJ

Cathy Grossman over at Faith amp Reason has highlighted a new poll that suggests that 53 of American Catholics should speak nbsp out publicly on matters concerning the church and society nbsp Other findings 53 say Women religious should follow their consciences and make public statements co

The Tablet of London not Brooklyn arrived late this week due to Memorial Day and I arrived late to reading it because of the extra research having lost a day of work to the holiday If you do not read the Tablet you should go online now and subscribe and not only because I happen to have the co

Regular readers will know of the high regard in which I hold Father David O rsquo Connell CM the President of the Catholic University of America for the past 12 years Evidently my opinion is shared by Pope Benedict XVI who named O rsquo Connell this morning as the Coadjutor Bishop of Trenton Ne

Those of you with somewhat long memories might remember the Jesuit mission bands groups nbsp of Jesuits who would nbsp visit a parish for a few days to offer a mission a kind of preached retreat usually in the evening designed for the men and women of a particular parish nbsp Busy lay men

As Kerry Weber reported from New Orleans today Catholic Charities and other humanitarian agencies are assisting the vast population of fishermen whose livelihoods are in serious jeopardy after the BP oil spill in the Gulf The U S Attorney General Eric Holder is reportedly pursuing a full invest

Though we are now on a biweekly print schedule we will continue to post items weekly to the Web site This week in conjunction with the announcement of our 2010 Foley Poetry prize winner we are featuring an online archive of past Foley winners Check it out here We are also grateful to the Archd

Today is the Feast of Charles Lwanga and companions or the African martyrs or in Uganda the Ugandan martyrs nbsp I have a great devotion to the Ugandan martyrs having spent two years in East Africa where many Christian communities organizations and churches are dedicated to them nbsp B

The President gave a forceful speech in Pittsburgh yesterday calling for Congress to move forward on climate change legislation and linking the need for that legislation with the nightmare unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico That link is obvious and the President was brave to bring it up because pol

Chris Nelhig waits He stands in the midst of a group of fellow fishermen a few taking drags on cigarettes All are out of work Women and children in shorts and t-shirts sit beneath a tent which offers shade while others line up in folding chairs or sit on rails of a wooden ramp leading up to a t

Walking through the city of New Orleans it is all anyone can hear Whether tourist or native everyone speaks of the oily creep washing ashore across the Gulf the unnatural disaster unfolding across a city that has barely begun to emerge from the devastation of Katrina and a similar alarming hori

In preparing a homily for the Feast of Corpus Christi this Sunday I reread two of my favorite passages about belief in the Eucharist which I thought I rsquo d share nbsp with any priests or deacons looking for some inspiration for a homily and nbsp with any Catholic eager to reflect on this grea

ldquo Annulments are just for the rich rdquo nbsp ldquo The Church makes a great deal of money from annulments rdquo nbsp ldquo Just more hypocrisy from the Catholic Church--it teaches against divorce but figures out another way to give a divorce rdquo ldquo Total sham how can the Churc

Archbishop Thomas Wenski was installed yesterday as the new Archbishop of Miami He is known largely for two things the fact that he drives a motorcycle and the fact that he is fluent in Spanish and Haitain Creole having worked with those communities all of his life At the Mass in which he took p

Chicago Once again the opportunity to blog for America puts me in the position of commenting on topics beyond my expertise but I cannot let pass without mention the 700th anniversary of the death of Marguerite Porete the medieval Christian mystic who was condemned for heresy and burnt at the stak

I am still a novice blogger Yes I have done a few over the past couple of years but word has now come down that America rsquo s associate editors are to blog on a regular basis Some already blog prolifically and in my mind rsquo s eye I see their fingers flying over their computer keyboards as

Greg Boyle S J founder of Homeboy Industries and author of Tattoos on the Heart which we reviewed here nbsp in our piece Hope for Homies was interviewed on May 20 on NPR s Fresh Air with Terry Gross Back in April he was also a guest on the America podcast As John Coleman S J repor