Under George W. Bush, the executive branch consolidated power to a dangerous degree.

There I was, a 50-something woman of privilege, in front of the Salvation Army homeless shelter in a seedy neighborhood of Austin on a sultry summer evening, dutifully putting bright orange traffic cones out in the street. I was startled by a tough-looking female police sergeant, who pulled me aside

Sewing up the torn paw of a Javanese leaf-monkey, with the help of an Indonesian vet, might seem an untried and unexpected form of interfaith dialogue, but it proved very productive for me. This particular encounter took place in a wildlife rescue center, ProFauna Indonesia, in the hill country of E

View a slideshow of images of Pope Benedict XVIs first visit to the U.S. as pontiff. This feature will be updated daily over the course of his visit.

For those who were moved by the pope s meeting with abuse victims from Boston here is an interview from The Boston Pilot the archdiocesan newspaper with Cardinal Sean O Malley on how the meeting came about Q Can you explain your involvement in that unannounced meeting in Washington that

Cambridge MA There are many good things and interesting things to reflect on after the Pope s visit to the Washington and New York but here I pick up on only one Benedict s April 17th visit with representatives of various religions at the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington Benedict

Mark does not explicitly give us the purpose of his Gospel Certainly one can deduce that he is interested in encouraging Christians to follow Christ no matter what the cost for the rewards are great He also appears to want to show the injustice of the interpretation of Jesus that led to his d

Matt Malone has just posted the final installment of his review of the fabulous John Adams miniseries on HBO Read it here For those of you who haven t seen the series be sure to add it to your Netflix queue it comes out on DVD on June 10 You can find Matt s review and other notable W

Sometimes the irony is so close it is difficult to see My friend Andrew Sullivan heads his blog with a quote from George Orwell To see what is in front of one s nose needs a constant struggle And as often as not the irony is in the words themselves Catholic is a word with a meaning

The Bible is populated with many characters that appear briefly and then vanish from the scene Philip the most prominent person in Acts 8 is one of these Except for a brief mention of his name in 6 5 and 21 8 all we know about him involves two scenes of preaching--one to the Samaritans and one

Barack Obama lost the Catholic vote in Pennsylvania to Hillary Clinton by an enormous margin of 68 -31 but his inability to attract Catholics has dogged him in earlier contests too The Catholic vote overlaps with other demographics blue collar older ethnic white all of which have garnered

As America’s readers know, we are celebrating our hundredth year of publication. Ever wondered what the magazine looked like in April of 1909? Online editor Tim Reidy has scanned and posted the April 17, 1909 initial issue of America as a .pdf file--you can read it here. (it’s a big file: be patient). The initial issue wasn’t big on graphics or readability, but heavy on content.

A unusually good and unusually fresh meditation on Pope Benedict s visit to Ground Zero and the pope s visit with the sexual abuse victims which uses the imagery of St Peter--who is told by Jesus that the leader of the church will be taken where you do not want to go It s at Pajamas

On Monday I gave a talk to an assembly conference of a couple hundred high school students from Catholic schools in San Francisco with my assigned topic being sexuality and spirituality today With all the caveats about the potential minefields assumed it was also an exciting opportunity to try

Hillary Clinton said last night that the road to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue leads through Pennsylvania But for the next few weeks the road from Pennsylvania leads to electoral purgatory Clinton can t win the nomination unless she so bloodies Barack Obama that the super-delegates and the voters

After a long week in Washington and New York covering Pope Benedict XVI David Gibson generously agreed to come by America s offices this morning to record a special podcast on the pope s visit Dave was a little tired but still on top of his game You can listen to our conversation here As

Jim Martin S J chats with Stephen Colbert about Pope Benedict XVI s visit to the United States as well as Stephen s chances for sainthood And Jim backstage with Colbert Jim Keane SJ

There are man reasons that many Democrats are hoping the results of today s Pennsylvania primary will finally bring the race to a close But if six months ago anyone would have suggested that one of the reasons to end the race is so that Bill Clinton can leave the stage they would have been lau

The Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium yesterday was one of the high points of my Catholic life Not simply for being able to be close to Pope Benedict XVI a man with whom I from time to time disagree and being able to see the Successor of St Peter but also for being able to celebrate being Cath