In politics as in sports momentum that invisible unquantifiable yet powerful force produced from a succession of wins can make or break a campaign That s why George H W Bush called it the Big Mo But how does a candidate gain momentum Well he or she has to figure out what the voter

The Administrative Committee of the U S Bishops Conference has issued a statement on the recent comments by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senator Joseph Biden regarding the Church s teaching on abortion The statement is balanced but strong as were the previous statements issued joint

America s election blog is pleased to welcome Tom Rosshirt who will do occasional postings for our readers Tom was a speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and is a partner at West Wing Writers a communications and strategy firm located in Washington D C Tom and his family worship at Holy Tri

Fr Jim Martin follows up on his first video blog on prayer with an introduction to Ignatian contemplation Check back in over the coming weeks for reflections on lectio divina and other forms of prayer Tim Reidy

Fr Roy Bourgeois the prominent Maryknoll priest and tireless human-rights advocate best known for his opposition to the School of the Americas the U S military s school that had trained some foreign military responsible for assassinations in Latin America has found himself in some potential

Barack Obama is quoted in this morning s Washington Post describing the how the campaign and specifically the GOP s message has changed in the past two weeks What s changed is that the Republican Party which had been trying to make an argument about experience basically got off that and

One of the most common misperceptions about the presidential election is that on November 4 we will have a national election to select our next President In fact we will have 51 separate elections on November 4 because of the Electoral College As Al Gore discovered in 2000 you can get more than

John the Baptist never became a Christian or follower of Jesus indeed there are signs of a cult about John even in the 50 s AD a sign that a number of John s followers never became followers of Jesus John s importance lies in the fact that for all four Gospels the reality of God s int

nbsp Austen Ivereigh s terrific piece below on the pope s upcoming trip to Lourdes reminds us of the need to accept the presence of the supernatural as part of faith nbsp There are many resources on the web about Lourdes for those who are interested in learning more including the official

I m going to take a punt Pope Benedict XVI s four-day visit to France beginning this Friday is set to be one of the defining moments of his pontificate The theme of his papacy has always been to challenge the dictatorship of relativism -- his memorable term for the newly-invigorated Europe

Sunday rsquo s Washington Post had a frightening article about just how ill-informed most American voters are It makes for some sad reading to realize how in this information age more people know the goings-on in Paris Hilton rsquo s romantic life than can find Iraq on a map But the article mis

Robert Giroux the great writer and editor nbsp and publisher of such literary nbsp giants as Flannery O Connor Robert Lowell T S Eliot Virginia Woolf Jack Kerouac and many others has died at the age of 94 nbsp The New York Times had this nbsp moving obituary nbsp on September 6 nbsp He

First Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi demonstrated that she wasn rsquo t paying attention during theology classes when she matriculated at Trinity College Now Sen Joe Biden has managed to wade into the treacherous waters of making pronouncements on what the Church does and does not teach abo

We promised that we would have a fresh post every morning by 8 a m This morning we had some technical difficulties but our new election blog is up and can be found here

Sixty days to go We are waiting for the polling numbers to shake out after the post-convention bounces But who is winning on the different components of a campaign on message biography the issues and on the ground Usually the two parties craft different messages for an election depending on

The restless mind of Norris Clark, S.J.

I am always intrigued by the epigraph an author uses to set the thematic mood for his or her work Gerald O rsquo Collins is prodigal with epigraphs often providing one or two to introduce each chapter Perhaps most telling is the one with which he prefaces the last chapter of his latest book Jesu

What would universal health care look like?

Why liturgical language should be accurate, faithful and clear

A New Blessed Couple, Record Time in Beijing