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Of Many Things
As I rode Amtrak’s Regional from Washington to New York one cold February afternoon, I was reminded that for me one of the delights of train travel is getting the lay of the land. Gazing out the window, I had just noted how one semi-rural settlement lay on the flood plain, and I wondered how f
News
Vatican Criticizes Jon Sobrino, Liberation TheologianThe Vatican has strongly criticized the work of Jon Sobrino, S.J., a leading proponent of liberation theology, saying some of his writings relating to the divinity of Christ were not in conformity with the doctrine of the church. In publishing a d
I remember watching a television episode of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood. I would like to say I was watching it with my kids, but actually I was watching for my own interest, without them. Mr. Rogers was interviewing the Wicked Witch of the West from the classic film The Wizard of Oz. For the b
Arts & CultureBooks
E M Forster wrote in Aspects of the Novel 1927 that fantasy asks us to pay something extra that is first to accept the fantasist 8217 s impossible story as a whole and second to accept the specific beings say fairies and events say miracles that are in it Those who can do this howe
The Word
The long and rich readings for Passion Palm Sunday usher us into Holy Week and prepare us for the Sacred Triduum and the celebration of Easter Sunday Each reading can contribute to our appreciation of Jesus rsquo sufferings and their significance for us nbsp The Old Testament passage from Isaia
Current Comment
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
Columns
Lent can be a disorienting, dislocating time, and sometimes it seems that it observes us more than we observe it. Twice recently I had the feeling that Lent was observing me and gently tweaking at my mind and heart, not without a smile on its face. The first of these moments happened in the middle o
In a Dilbert cartoon, “Mike the Vegan” takes pride in claiming that he uses “no animal products whatsoever.” Dilbert reminds him, though, that his clothing was made on sewing machines that use electricity produced from fossil fuels. The last panel shows Mike walking down the
Letters
Vital Care
The reasons given in your editorial for the condition of the homeless of our country (Homelessness: A Solvable Problem, 3/5) are on target. Many of the homeless are mentally ill and in need of care that would provide a structured setting and promote recovery in most instances. Taking medication for mental illness, under supervision, is one of the best methods for enabling people to return to live in the community, where follow-up care is vital.
Having worked in the mental health field for several years, I know that providing a structured setting for those in acute phases of mental illness and then follow-up care in the community is the best approach to that cause of homelessness. Inexpensive housing is also very important. But finding building contractors is difficult, since the profits from such homes are much less than from the building of McMansions.
Anna M. Seidler
Editorials
The current scandal of sexual abuse at a juvenile facility in Texas is but one example of a phenomenon that has long been a dark underside of the U.S. prison systemthe rape of prisoners. The Texas case involves the abuse of youths by staff members at a state-run school. But nationally the abuse has
We have been mulling over “the good” around our Catholic Worker community in South Bend recently, tending to attach to that abstract notion memories of our flesh-and-blood friend, Mike Lawson. He was murdered just before Christmas. His body was discovered over two weeks later along with
Culture
The summer solstice was around the corner, but our seasonal fog had not yet appeared. Instead, we were experiencing day after day of clear, brilliant skies. Without any shades on our second-story bedroom window, I could raise up my head at first light and survey from my pillow what seemed to be a ne
Arts & CultureBooks
In future years when the history of our lagging environmental consciousness is written there may well be a special place devoted to the work of Thomas Berry.
On a stunning midwinter’s day, with blue sky above and a gentle breeze blowing, I stand on the banks of the River Jordan, a 30 minute walk from the Sea of Galilee. To my left is a small dam; the river stops, for all intents and purposes, here. To my right is the source of a nauseating stench:
"All of us long for a pentecostal church: a church in which the Spirit rules, and not the letter; a church in which understanding breaks down the fences we erect against each other. We are impatient with a church which seems so unpentecostal, so unspiritual, so narrow and fearful. Joseph Ratzinger s
Arts & CultureBooks
Comparing himself to Flannery O 8217 Connor the novelist Walker Percy describes himself as a writer of the Catholic perspective in the 20th century From a Catholic perspective at least Christianity underwrites those very properties of the novel without which there is no novel I am speaking of
Current Comment
Noahs DinosaursDuring eight days last September, 16-year-old Matthew LaClair carried a concealed tape recorder to his 11th-grade American history class at Kearny High School in Kearny, N.J. He recorded any comments about religion made by his teacher, 38-year-old David Paszkiewicz. Matthew, whose fam
On the day I write this column, The New York Times has published side by side on its front page two articles that embody the divergent possibilities of our future in Iraq. The United States, contrary to all previous statements, will join Iran and Syria in talks on Iraq. As the Iraq Study Group had e
A shard of bone from the body of St. Francis Xavier—I held it in my hand, gazing at this tiny remnant of a human body centuries old, contained under glass in its small reliquary. This particular relic belongs to one of two collections of relics with which Ihave become familiar at Jesuit parish