This Sunday is the Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Father Daniel Harrington writes that the Old Testament wisdom books and the New Testament writings have some wise things to say about money and possessions While affirming that we live in the real world of commerce they teach us that we shou

I raised the issue of doing typological interpretation in our time in my last post and let me reiterate that I have no problem with typology as a method of interpretation employed by the early Church Moreover I find typology meaningful in the liturgies at Christmas and Easter What I have a probl

Wisdom of Solomon also known as the Book of Wisdom offers a perspective on Luke 12 An extended essay in elegant Greek Wisdom of Solomon was written for Egyptian Jews around the first century B C Like some of the literature produced in this period it retells biblical traditions in an elaborate

18th Sunday We only have to look at so-called reality television to see just how far some of our compatriots will go to be famous to be wealthy or to be part of the popular imagination We should never be surprised when our media culture reflects this back to us And by watching these programs re

For many Catholics, the word missionary brings to mind a centuries-old image of a priest planting a cross in a foreign land and teaching, baptizing and celebrating Mass for its people. Or it may conjure up the slightly more modern image of women religious running a school in Africa or Latin America.

Through the Fog My thanks and congratulations to Bishop Donald W. Trautman for his excellent article on the new Mass translations being moved forward by the Inter-national Commission on English in the Liturgy (5/21). I must admit that reading it saddened me, because it is yet another indication of t

Five miles from my living room, in a world about which I know very little, men and women are gathering in a public space in downtown Newark, N.J., to commemorate the 40th anniversary of a riot. The city of Newark exploded 40 years ago this month. It exploded because of a rumora cabdriver, it was sai

In the July 30-August 6 edition of America, Vincent Gragnani writes about the new, lay face of missionaries. As the number of priests and religious ministry around the globe declines, he writes, lay people are helping to fill the gap. Mr. Gragnani is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego and a former staff writer at the Southern Cross, the diocesan newspaper of the diocese of San Diego. In addition to publishing in America, he has written for St. Anthony Messenger, One and U.S. Catholic. Mr. Gragnani agreed to discuss his article by email.

How many lay missionaries are working today?

The permanent diaconate a reality in the ecclesial structure of the church in the United States since its renewal by the Second Vatican Council has been the topic of several volumes in the Paulist Press Deacon rsquo s Library series Kenan Osborne O F M emeritus professor of systematic theology

Where have all the book reviews gone?

To be pastor for a typical Catholic parish these days is to attempt the impossible, for the pastor’s role has grown too large. It includes pastoral duties (preaching, counseling, presiding at liturgies, administrating sacraments, visiting parishioners), managing human resources (staff directio

Politicians pushing shopping carts down supermarket aisles are not an ordinary sight. But some in public office have been doing just that in accepting a weeklong challenge to experience the difficulties of living on a food stamp allowance of barely more than one dollar per meal. This year Congress m

Jesus loves imperfect people. On that score, all of us qualify.

In the Los Angeles area a community of observant Jews wants to bring picnic baskets to the beach on Saturdays Surprisingly this has put them at odds with both the Sierra Club and the staff of the California Coastal Commission According to Talmud a Jew may not schlep anything outside his home on

Stiff Upper LipThe British are famous for their steadiness in the midst of crisis. Londoners had their finest hour as they endured the blitz in 1940 with the proverbial stiff upper lip. Over the past three decades they endured numerous terrorist bombings by the I.R.A. and the assassination of Lord L

You live in unremitting darkness,

China Reserves Right to Elect, Ordain Bishops A Catholic lay leader from Beijing said China will continue to self-elect and self-ordain bishops. We ordain bishops only for the sake of evangelization in the mainland. Nobody can stop us, said Anthony Liu Bainian, vice chairman of the Chinese Catholic