Reviving Amtrak; New York's New Archbishop

Justice and reconciliation in the aftermath of atrocities

As we enter the month of May devotion to Mary and praying the rosary come to the fore Here is a variation that I nbsp find very helpful It originated with some variations with Cardinal Suenens of Belgium nbsp nbsp At bottom nbsp instead of nbsp one Our Father and then ten Hail Marys nbsp

The news of Justice David Souter rsquo s retirement adds another challenging task to President Obama rsquo s already full plate There is any number of qualified candidates so the challenge is merely a political one Everyone seems to think Obama will choose a woman I agree that women often bring a

Subscribers can read nbsp our editorial in America online here but here s a few snippets in advance The clouds roll with thunder the House of the Lord shall be built throughout the earth and these frogs sit in their marsh and croak mdash lsquo We are the only Christians rsquo rdquo So wrote

Ever since I worked in a Jesuit parish in a slum in Nairobi Kenya called Mtakatifu Yosefu Mfanyakazi or St Joseph the Worker I have been drawn nbsp to this aspect of the foster father of Jesus nbsp Of course we know little about him other than the little that the Gospels tell us nbsp Josep

The results of a Pew survey on the Notre Dame controversy are out and make for nbsp illuminating reading nbsp But the real news which takes us beyond the ND situation nbsp is deeper down in the report nbsp The opening graf says it all Most Catholics who have heard about the issue support th

Politics makes for some strange bedfellows But nothing in recent memory is stranger than the emerging alliance between a group of activist evangelicals and former Cold War statesmen in support of an effort to eliminate nuclear weapons Entirely Earlier this week the group Two Futures introduced i

The University of Notre Dame has announced that this year s Laetare Address will be given by Judge John Noonan who received the Laetare Medal in 1984 The announcement is not yet on the website but I will provide a link as soon as it is Update Here is the link

President Obama has completed his first 100 days The calendar has always seemed an odd way to connote significance but time is a thing we humans have long enjoyed measuring so I suppose it is as good a marker as any for assessing the new Chief Magistrate If you read only the statements by some Ame

I rsquo ve found the conversation on Mary Ann Glendon very interesting and wanted to follow up on some of the points made nbsp nbsp Hopefully my comments will clearly respect the points of view of those who shared them that rsquo s certainly my intent nbsp I completely appreciate Professor G

The Boston Globe has the story on Jack Sullivan nbsp the Marshfield Mass man who has been cured of a longstanding illness through the intercession of Venerable John Henry Newman nbsp For Sullivan who said he has remained pain-free since his prayers were answered and who has lately been busy

Not since Paul fell from his horse on the way to Damascus has a conversion caused so much comment and consternation as Sen Arlen Specter rsquo s decision to bolt the Republican Party and run for re-election next year as a Democrat The consequences are immediate and not all of them are welcome The

An Open Letter to John JenkinsJohn Jenkins CSCPresident Notre Dame UniversityNotre Dame IndianaDear Father Jenkins Now that Mary Ann Glendon has announced that she would not accept Notre Dame rsquo s prestigious Laetare Medal because she was ldquo dismayed rdquo by the university rsquo s awar

The most interesting part of the visit of Prince Charles and Camilla to Pope Benedict never happened The Pope never did present the royal couple with a facsimile of the letter written by English nobles to Pope Clement VII in 1530 pleading for the annulment of Henry VIII s marriage to Catherine of

I recently wrote about Lynn Nottage rsquo s important play ldquo Ruined rdquo which since that blog post has received the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for drama It has also received five nbsp Drama Desk Award nominations for outstanding play actress featured actress director and music Such criti

It was announced yesterday nbsp that Mary Ann Glendon Harvard Law professor and former U S ambassador to the Holy See has now declined to receive the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame at graduation in May out of concerns arising from the school s decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak

Why not use this blog entry Not that you would use it perhaps that s presumptuous of me even to assume it but no one wants to hear about word studies from the pulpit On the other hand what will people say when they hear Acts 4 8-12 proclaimed this Sunday According to the NAB Peter asks if he

Cambridge MA I am sure many of you read Mark C Taylor s End the University as We Know It op-ed piece in the New York Times on April 27 It is about the need for radical reform in higher education academe including a radical refashioning of what counts as scholarly research But be sure also to