Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Arts & CultureBooks
Richard J. Hauser
For years I have stared at the five published volumes over 2 100 pages of Thomas Merton rsquo s letters arranged neatly on a shelf in my Merton collection and wondered if I would ever have time to work through them Occasionally I opened a volume to check a reference but the massive collection of
Faith in Focus
Laura Sheahen
Please stop being Gnostic. Yes, you, the person reading these words. You’re bringing me downliterally. You see, I had hoped after death to rise. Physically. I hope very much the church’s constant teaching is true: that at the end of time, we’ll be raised bodily. The resurrection of
Joan Sauro

All of them were small and narrow, Emily Dickinson beds situated in modest rooms. Once I journeyed to Amherst, Mass., solely to see Emily Dickinson’s bedroom, to breathe the sacred air. As luck would have it, I had come the wrong day for tours and was left on the stoop of the Homestead, breathing the spring air. There I pondered the 300 feet to the Evergreens next door and the well-worn path taken by Emily and her best friend, her sister-in-law, Sue.

 

The next afternoon Emily’s door was opened and I joined a group in a downstairs parlor where we endured a half-hour talk devoid of poetry. Finally, we were led up the stairs to the landing where Emily had stood, out of sight, above the chatter of company down in the parlor we had just left. She had little use for chatter, preferring to send a short poem, perhaps a few flowers down to the company. Lagging behind the group, I ran my hand along the banister and listened to Emily’s voice.

 

Had I not seen the Sun

Arts & CultureBooks
A gem among the sayings of the desert fathers has Abba Lot coming to Abba Joseph and saying As much as I am able I keep my little rule and my fast my prayer meditation my contemplative silence And as much as possible I strive to keep my thoughts clean What more should I do The elder monk ros
Editorials
The Editors
As presidents, neither George Washington nor Abraham Lincoln spent time worrying about schools. Since the Constitution did not assign care for education to the federal government, that became the states’ concern. Until after the Civil War, however, the states pretty much left it to families an
Don Saliers
Resurrection seems an unlikely notion for contemporary minds. Creation is much easier for us to understand, given its prevalence in naturethe caterpillar and the butterfly, the seed and the plant, the bud and the rose. But Easter is more than the scent of lilies and the rolling of eggs or the genera
Michael A. Signer
As the gray days of winter move toward spring, Jews and Christians begin to prepare for their festivals of rebirth and freedom: Passover and Easter. Since the Second Vatican Council’s publication of the Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions in 1965, many Chri
Letters

The Divide

After reading Terry Golway’s column Renew-ing Theology on Tap (3/12), I hope my experience with our local program is not typical. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati sponsors a Theology on Tap program, which last summer was meeting in my neighborhood in Covington, Ky., a city across the river. Mine is a diverse inner-city neighborhood, and our parish is the most inclusive in the area. When we sing All Are Welcome, we mean it. The Theology on Tap schedule included a talk on homosexuality. Since the bar where they meet is near my house and across the street from my church, I decided to find out what they had to say on this topic. What I encountered was appalling. The talk, given by a priest from the Diocese of Covington, was reactionary, psychologically nave and deeply homophobic. At one point, in response to a question, this priest compared gays and lesbians to Nazis. Amazingly, not one member of the large, relatively young audience challenged these comments. In fact, many expressed complete agreement. If Theology on Tap is using this kind of reactionary theology to appeal to young adults, it will only deepen the divide between younger and older Catholics.

Daniel A. Burr

Arts & CultureBooks
Gary A. Anderson
Christian tradition has not been kind to the Jewish claim to the land of Israel For many of the fathers of the church the fact that Rome had invaded that land and destroyed the temple in Jerusalem A D 70 seemed to be an objective marker of divine disfavor Already in the fourth century John Chr
Of Many Things
Karen Sue Smith
Months ago a friend sent me an article from The Atlanta Constitution (10/22/06) about a man whose family I knew well when we all lived together at Koinonia Farm in Americus, Ga. Today Koinonia is known as the birthplace of Habitat for Humanity, but a generation ago it suffered the bitter distinction
News
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pope, Putin Discuss Catholic-Orthodox Relations Pope Benedict XVI and President Vladimir Putin of Russia spent 25 minutes speaking privately March 13, discussing Catholic-Orthodox relations and ways to strengthen the relationship between the Vatican and the Russian government. Although two translato
Faith
James Martin, S.J.
Are joy, humor and laughter considered inappropriate for serious Catholics? If so, why?
Robert A. Krieg
Catherine Mowry LaCugna chose to teach her theology courses for the spring semester of 1997 knowing that she might die within the year. By April she was considerably weaker, but she completed the semester, teaching her last classes at the University of Notre Dame on Tuesday, April 29. On Thursday sh
The Word
Daniel J. Harrington
Easter is the pivotal day in the Christian calendar As Paul wrote ldquo If Christ has not been raised your faith is vain you are still in your sins rdquo 1 Cor 15 17 At the heart of Christian faith is the paschal mystery mdash Jesus rsquo life death and resurrection some 2 000 years ago
Arts & CultureBooks
Peter Heinegg
Back in 1978 on the way to his bar mitzvah a funny thing happened to Jeffrey Goldberg now Washington correspondent for The New Yorker he started to become a passionate Zionist His assimilated secular left-wing and soon to be divorced parents thought they could avoid the predictable alrightn
Current Comment
The Editors
Double StandardsZimbabwe is a failed state. Its strongman, Robert Mugagbe, has ruled since 1980; and his Big Man style of governance has turned a country that was once the breadbasket of southern Africa into a hungry wasteland. He drove off white settler-farmers, allegedly to redistribute the land t
Columns
Terry Golway
Public apologies are all the rage these days, so much so that it’s hard to find a celebrity or newsmaker who hasn’t visited the high priests of the secular confessional, Larry King and Oprah Winfrey, to beg for forgiveness for some petty offense. But the trend is hardly limited to indivi
Current Comment
The Editors
A Report From Los AngelesAnyone lamenting the health of the Catholic Church would have been cheered by this year’s Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the largest Catholic convention in the country, held every year since 1967. This year’s gathering attracted nearly 40,000 pastoral