Praying with the Quakers in Plymouth Meeting, Pa.

One of the happier aspects of the fall season in the northern hemisphere is the sudden urge we get to plant bulbs. Having just moved into a new home, with a tiny garden that is bravely trying to survive on a layer of builders’ rubble, I have to admit that this urge was accompanied by considera

Aided by the moral teaching of the church, U.S. Catholics should carefully form their consciences in order to participate in public life, according to a draft document on faith and citizenship prepared by the Administrative Committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and made available to A

Larry and Donna Smith had it good. He worked as an engineer, she as a newspaper editor. They had a happy family and their health—the middle-class American dream. Then Donna was diagnosed with cancer; and Larry had a heart attack, and then another, and another. And the real nightmare began. Alt

Its in the Mail E-mail is a wonderful thing. Quick and easy to use, its an economical, paperless way to communicate with friends, family and colleagues. Who today would choose snail mail over the efficiency and speed of a T-1 line? E-mail is a terrible thing. Far too quick and easy to use, it can ea

What kind of moral stance, what course of action can you take, when you seem to face a dreaded in-evitability? I have encountered this quandary with respect to individuals heading off an ethical cliff. I see it in the absolute refusal to acknowledge that Americans might have to cut back on consumpti

This book has convinced me that just about any country on earth can have nuclear weapons if it wants them My conclusion from reading The Atomic Bazaar is that it is still possible to stop or impede any particular program but the general process of nuclear proliferation is now so advanced that it i

What I learned from my uncle, the monk

Saints are tests of our willingness to be thoroughly converted.

It was both upsetting and perplexing to learn that Amnesty International has decided to support a right to abortion as part of its worldwide campaign to stop violence against women. How can an organization dedicated to the protection of human rights oppose the right to life of unborn children? The V

Recent court rulings have undermined the church's promise of confidentiality.

In an essay in Foreign Affairs January February 2007 Tony Blair argued not unpersuasively that in the war against global extremism w e chose values instead of security as our battleground By values he meant democratic values W henever countries are in the process of democratic development