This weekend the McCain campaign began trying to change the conversation from the economic mess which has cost them dearly in the polls They announced they were taking the gloves off and were going to go after Barack Obama rsquo s character Of course it tells you something about the character

nbsp In the heat of an election with its emphasis on tactical maneuvers advertising buys and ground operations it is difficult to detect the broad stroke of history as she marches on Yet march she does and in the past two weeks the economic crisis has resulted in unimaginable levels of govern

Church Officials Charge: Conspiracy Behind Violence Church officials and others say there is a “clear conspiracy behind the sudden upsurge in the atrocities committed against Christian targets in different parts of India.” “We are really distressed to see that atrocities on Christi

Ten things to remember this fall

Kathleen Norris' 'Acedia & Me,' reviewed

Richard P. McBrien's 'The Church,' reviewed

Another fall publishing season is upon us.

'The meltdown of venerable investment houses might have been anticipated.'

Forgiveness, atonement and the High Holy Days

A study in tolerance, reviewed

In his most affective and affecting epistle St Paul wrote to the Philippians ldquo I give thanks to my God for all my memories of you rdquo Phil 1 3 Paul rsquo s eucharistic remembering came repeatedly to mind while reading the Rev John Jay Hughes rsquo s lovely and moving autobiography No

Mary's Smile, Relics Secular and Sacred

We need a new design for the economy predicated on human solidarity.

The Crusades are typically thought of as the wars between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East that occurred during the 12th and 13th centuries While this was their most famous manifestation it was not the only one They also involved conflicts against the Moors in Iberia heretics in souther

Time for a Boycott Regarding your editorial on the situation in India (“Persecution in Orissa,” 9/22): it seems to me that much of the impetus for the growing religious intolerance in India stems from the booming economic strength of India that has empowered ethnic and religious majoriti

Mary Oliver rsquo s newest book The Truro Bear and Other Adventures Poems and Essays will certainly please connoisseurs of her work and will likely win her new readers as well The 35 poems and prose sketches in the collection that have been previously published present themselves as familiar fri

Mark has picked up again his recital of powerful deeds from Jesus The present two stories are notable for their vivid features which indicate that these particular stories remained very much alive in their color and drama over many years of retelling A particular sign of this remembrance is the

nbsp Cambridge MA The past weeks have been a time of upheaval ranging from the hurricanes in the south to collapse on Wall Street plus the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the still longer term disasters of our environmental crisis sporadic and systematized violence sometimes relig

Back in August I posted an item on the controversy over the disinterment of John Henry Newman the British nineteenth-century convert cardinal who is on the track to sainthood Almost as soon as special permission was obtained to move the body from its resting place outside Birmingham to a city chur