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The Word
Carrying on Jesus Mission
Daniel J. Harrington
The feast of the Ascension commemorates the risen Jesus rsquo departure from earth and his exaltation to his heavenly Father Pentecost Sunday celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and their associates and the beginning of the Christian mission to the ends of the earth Meanwhil
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Catholic Leaders Urge Calm in East TimorCatholic Church leaders in East Timor have called for calm as troops continue to patrol the tense streets of Dili in the wake of a riot by hundreds of dismissed soldiers and about 1,000 of their supporters. Army protesters and their sympathizers took to the st
The Ordinary Way of Benedict
Dolores R. Leckey
It does not take parents very long to realize that they teach their children not so much by what they say as by who they are. Their presence, their choices, their lives, their being speak to their children in the deepest way. The same can be said of true educators, whose teaching reaches beyond tech
Woodys World
Robert E. Lauder
Woody Allen’s latest film, “Match Point,” is probably one of the most explicitly atheistic films in the history of American cinema. It is also a vivid illustration of the nihilistic worldview that Allen has been presenting in most of his films for nearly 40 years. While God is abse
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Not Too Hysterical

If what the Rev. Michael Kane writes about New Standards for Pastoral Care (4/10) is true, I wonder, as a psychiatrist, why any man would even venture to become a priest. The priestly role is already a lonely one in our day, but according to him things are likely to make it even lonelierwith his bishop becoming an advocate for the diocese, and not a support for the priest, and his parishioners so likely to jump on him because something goes amiss in his counseling role that he had better get himself some malpractice insurance.

Frankly, I think the author is being carried away, perhaps because he may really be overly identifying the priest’s role with that of a psychotherapist, whose professional role is so much more clearly defined, while the role of a priest is much broader and not to be guided by rigid boundaries (the buzz word these days for mental health workers).

As I read the Virtus Model Code of Pastoral Conduct,I really get no sense of the doom and gloom he implies to be there. Rather I get a good picture of very reasonable principles to guide a priest in his counseling role, some rather common-sense principles that I assume are easily followed by men with the level of education enjoyed by current priests. Nor do I sense a stage being set for bishops to abandon their supportive role to the clergy. Please, let’s not get too hysterical in the aftermath of the sexual abuse debacle.

Donald J. Carek, M.D.

Arts & CultureBooks
They Belong Together
Richard M. Gula
What does going to Mass on Sunday have to do with going to work on Monday Or in what ways might the liturgy of the Eucharist spill over into the liturgy of life to influence the sort of people we become the way we see the world and the decisions we make According to Dennis Billy C Ss R and Jam
Current Comment
Current Comment
The Editors
Prayers for ChinaWhile the situation of the Catholic Church in China has not been normal for many decades, in very recent times it appeared that the lot of Chinese Catholics was improving. It became known that many bishops of the official Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association were, in fact, also in
Of Human Life
John F. Kavanaugh
Thirty-eight years after its publication, the encyclical Humanae Vitae is once again causing a stir. The Italian weekly L’Espresso featured in its April 21 issue an extended dialogue between the bioethicist Ignazio Marino and the retired Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Carlo Martini, S.J. (For t
Silent Tsunamis
Kenneth Hackett
Large-scale humanitarian crises of various kinds periodically rivet the attention of the world. Among the challenges of the humanitarian agencies that respond to them, however, is the struggle to address needs arising from others as wellpeople in need who receive less attention. The Columbia Univers
Faith in Focus
The Rhythms of the Saints
John J. McLain
I hurriedly vest for Mass, fingers fumbling over the unfamiliar cincture. I pick up the books of hymns and prayers and scurry out of the sacristy, moving through the ancient stone church and the outer chapel. Pausing to genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament at a side altar to Our Lady, I shiver eve
Current Comment
Current Comment
The Editors
Professionals and PatriotsWashington has rumbled for years with rumors of professional dissent at the Pentagon and C.I.A. from Bush administration policies in the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. Occasionally the dissent has become public, as when Gen. Eric Shinseki, then chairman of the Join
Arts & CultureBooks
Cash Grant, Anyone?
Cecilio Morales
Did the founding fathers have in mind today rsquo s roughly 500 billion-a-year federal social programs when they penned the constitutional pledge to promote the general Welfare What is the general welfare anyway and who should be its caretaker These are some of the questions Charles Murray raise
The Silenced Monk
Robert Nugent
Thomas Merton spent almost half his life in the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, a Trappist monastery in Kentucky. Strict silence was an integral part of the Trappist way of life when he entered in 1941. Merton took readily to the rule of strict silence, but circumvented it when necessary. By the mi
Faith in Focus
Battlegrounds
Joan Sauro
Iraq receives all the headlines these days. But the truth is there is a war being waged in the homeland, a battleground in nursing homes across the country. In the past five months my mother has been in three of them as her health and self-reliance deteriorate. The latest is a 13-floor monolith wher
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Long-Suffering People

In the whirligig of Philippine politics, faceless power brokers in the shadows are constantly trying to destabilize the elected government (Current Comment, 4/24).

When the maverick Col. Gregorio Gringo Honasan led the final coup attempt against then-President Cory Aquino, a major Manila daily published my single-sentence letter: After six coup attempts, who is behind them? That question remains unanswered. Honasan, instead of being shot for treason, was later elected senator!

Nor has it ever come to light who ordered the assassination of Ninoy Aquino when he stepped off a plane from Boston in Manila airport. A handful of foot soldiers, including the triggermen, are, of course, in prison. President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo must watch her back.

I served in the Philippines for over a decade and sadly observe that with all the fun and games in Manila, the long-suffering Philippine people are worse off than ever.

(Rev.) George P. Carlin

The Word
Ascension and Mission
Daniel J. Harrington
Luke is the New Testament author most responsible for our concept of the Easter season and the Ascension of Jesus At the beginning of Acts Luke rsquo s sequel to his Gospel he tells us that the risen Jesus made appearances to his disciples during the 40 days after Easter and ascended to heaven T
Editorials
The True Costs of War
The Editors
As the nation moves beyond the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, difficult choices lie ahead. While it has become increasingly clear that the war in Iraq has not made the United States more secure or the world a safer place, future U.S. policy in Iraq is not nearly as clear. Would the prema
Arts & CultureBooks
Mission Overshadowed
Claire Schaeffer-Duffy
Baghdad is burning when Paul Bremer arrives in May 2003 It is still burning when he leaves 14 months later The fires of looters have been replaced by attacks from an insurgency that intensified during his tour of duty as head of the Coalition Provisional Authority Things get so hot in the land Br
Changing the Rules
L. Martin Nussbaum
The Boston Globe began publishing on Jan. 6, 2002, a series of reports regarding sexual abuse of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Boston. In a flash, newspapers around the country began reprinting the Globe’s reports and developing their own. They published 728 stories in January, 1,0
Faith in Focus
A Rose From Mother
Theresa Furlow
My pager went off at 5 p.m., just after my husband and I had come home from work. I called the long-term care facility where I was the director of nurses. The receptionist told me to call immediately the emergency room of one of our local hospitals. When I asked for the nurse who had left the messag