Were it not a Sunday tomorrow October 19 nbsp Masses would be celebrated to commemorate nbsp the Feast Day of the North American Martyrs the eight Jesuit priests and brothers martyred in Canada and New York the result of their work with native peoples in New France nbsp They are sometimes k

Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ you have fallen away from grace 5 3-4 Again Paul makes a charged statement about the role of the law - You w

Paul begins this next section by comparing the Galatians interest in the law of Moses to the stoicheia the natural elements which were sometimes treated as gods see A A Long and D N Sedley The Hellenistic Philosophers Vol 1 Cambridge 1987 280-89 The comparison is clear enough but h

In 2004 the Al Smith Dinner did not invite the presidential candidates because one of them was a pro-choice Catholic But this year the tradition returned white tie and tails the Cardinal-Archbishop of New York presiding and both presidential candidates yucking it up Best lines of the night w

How do Senators McCain and Obama really stack up on all the life issues that have been championed by the Catholic church over the years nbsp Catholics United has a clever way of laying them out on their website for nbsp anyone uninterested in slogging through position papers nbsp Here it is Ja

Today s issue of The Wall Street Journal of all places has a few answers Right Louis and Zelie Martin who will be beatified this Sunday in Lisieux and their children nbsp Presumably the smallest--and most pious--one is St Therese of Lisieux nbsp James Martin SJ

The Commonwealth of Virginia has seen its voter registration rolls increase by ten percent this year the largest single-year increase in memory And a new report worries that the state may not be ready to handle all these newcomers on election Recent reports about fraudulent registrations only ma

Following the marvelous miracles of multiplication of food and walking on water and a host of still other wonders Mark again interjects a conflict story Here Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem want to know why Jews followers of Jesus do not obey the Tradition of the Elders but instead eat

When it came time to promote new generals Napoleon would consult with his military aides They would brief the emperor on the education and experience of those seeking elevation in the ranks Yes yes Napoleon would reply But is he lucky Barack Obama is lucky His opponent John McCain gave h

The newest funny viral video a MoveOn com parody of a don t do drugs-type ad with young celebrities advising their friends about dealing with parents who want to vote McCain One of the most interesting parts of the 2008 campaign has been the use of viral videos to draw attention and sway opinion

Barack Obama and John McCain both unveiled plans to deal with the economic crisis this week Unfortunately if unsurprisingly both plans had less to do with fixing the economy and more to do with winning the election Obama proposed several distinct ideas in his plan and most of them were unobjecti

Now that taxpayers on both sides of the Atlantic have woken up to find they are shareholders in their own banks governments are going to begin asserting a little shareholder power on behalf of their citizens nbsp In a few days Gordon Brown the British prime minister has managed partially to nat

The episode following the feeding of the 5000 through the instrumentality of the Twelve is the story of Jesus walking on the water No doubt one can study individual episodes to learn their meanings but we do recognize that it is Mark and his intentions that linked certain stories with others

See nbsp how David van Biema at Time and a few others answer that question something that nbsp a lot of people are asking in these parlous financial times nbsp Maybe the psalms can help you more than you think with your worries about mortgage-backed securities and your retirement plans James

Paul s initial argument regarding Abraham and the law of Moses is that the promise to Abraham on the basis of faith cannot be annulled by the coming of the law of Moses 430 years later see Exodus 12 40 for the likely origin of Paul s chronology What does he mean Paul argues that the promise

Snap crackle and pop Or is it snap crackle and puff nbsp Last month I was present as British journalist Christopher Hitchens huffed and puffed in a tirade against religion Hitchens as a leader of the new atheists brigade was proclaiming his message and promoting his new book God is Not Grea

I can rsquo t let today go by without giving you a little snapshot of a wonderful gathering of committed religious and a bit of an epiphany that happened this weekend in Louisville Kentucky nbsp Which I was told several times was pronounced not Loo-ee-ville and not even Lou-a-ville but in fa

In 1952 my mother was a student teacher at the Horace Porter Elementary School in Columbia Connecticut She was teaching the children about the Soviet Union One of her students unhelpfully went home and told her parents my mother was teaching communism Within 48 hours she was hauled in front of

Cambridge MA The New York Times for Monday October 13 caught my eye three times over with items of sadness that pertain to interreligious relations interreligious thinking On the front page one article talked about the campaign dedicated to spreading the rumor that Barack Obama is a Muslim A