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FaithFaith
Who was Charles de Foucauld?
Robert Ellsberg
At the time of his violent death, Charles de Foucauld had had founded no congregation nor attracted any followers. And yet his witness endured.
The Word
Let All Be at Peace!
Dianne Bergant
quot Let all be at peace rdquo This phrase from the Rule of St Benedict envisions a situation in which all members of the community are free of anxiety receiving what they need This understanding of peace corresponds with the biblical concept referred to on the Thirty-second Sunday ldquo a l
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Plight of Marginalized Palestinian ChristiansThe permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, Archbishop Celestino Migliore, made the following statement on Nov. 2 during the 60th session of the General Assembly in respose to the Report of the Commissioner-General of the United Nations
Faith in Focus
Obedient Unto Death
Margaret Roche Macey
In the summer of 1975, I met Paul Dent, S.J. I was passing through Chicago and stopped to visit a friend who was spending the summer at Loyola University. He invited me to stay for dinner, and we decided to go to a late afternoon Mass before we ate. The Mass was held in the basement of a Jesuit resi
Arts & CultureBooks
Continuity and Change
Charles R. Morris
Voltaire loved to mock the pretensions of scholastic philosophythe notion that some grand intellectualist construction would explain any fact the conviction that one rsquo s own mental categories were the real stuff of the universe the assumption of a guiding intelligence behind every event What
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Migration is a word heard with ever greater frequency, and I heard a lot about its many aspects—mostly painful ones—during a three-day conference last June at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Representatives from Fairfield and some 20 other Jesuit institutions, including several from
Taxing Work
Edward M. Welch
Jesus did not have much to say about tax policy. He brushed off questions, saying, Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. The Gospel message does, however, have important implications for how we should collect taxes. Christ clearly taught that we should be concerned about the least among us, that
Letters
Letters

Careful Scrutiny

In his excellent column Of Many Things on Sept. 12, Drew Christiansen, S.J., mentions the contention of Michael Buckley, S.J., that the roots of atheism were in 17th-century natural theology and suggests that the proponents of intelligent design...are repeating the mistake of using science as evidence for belief in God. He seems to hint that if scientific evidence is the foundation of belief in God, science will sooner or later (or again) turn us into atheists.

It seems that both intelligent design theorists, and certain evolutionists who oppose them, share a faulty and dangerous assumption: if God is involved in the creation and development of life, we will catch him in the act. Intelligent-design advocates believe that examination of life at the molecular and cellular level provides evidence of divine intervention. Atheistic evolutionists like Richard Dawkins believe that there is no such evidence, and that therefore God does not exist or at least can have had no part in creation.

These professional scientists prove amateur theologians. Who says that if God is involved in creationeither as an intelligent designer or the directing force of evolutionwe will find evidence of it? Is it not equally possible that God’s creative activity may be so perfect, so pure and so seamless that we will, in fact, find no physical or molecular evidence of it at all? The biblical tradition itself finds evidence of God not at the molecular level, but in the glory, beauty and overarching order of creationdecidedly unscientific evidences, grounded in human aesthetic perception. If the scientists are going to moonlight as theologians, we had better subject their theology to as careful a scrutiny as their biology.

Patrick J. Nugent

Editorials
The Shame of Torture
The Editors
The logjam of denials about the torture and abuse of prisoners in U.S. detention sites in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo has finally been broken. Capt. Ian Fishback’s letter in September to Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, has cleared the way for steps that may at last establish
Arts & CultureBooks
Light on Mystery
Anne Carr
This is a difficult book to classify It is not history or theology or philosophy nor is it poetry exegesis criticism or hagiography mdash although it includes something of each Perhaps it might be considered a manual for converts a handbook for participants in a parish adult initiation group
Faith in Focus
Dodging Traffic
Mary Moloney Haggerty
Last week, over our Wednesday morning cup of coffee, a conservative Christian friend smiled as she told me I am the most conservative liberal she has ever met! There was a time when this would have brought anything but a smile to my face. But that day, I laughed out loud. I thanked her for recognizing in me a hard-fought battle that has landed me smack dab in the middle of the road.
Letters
Letters

Modernity

The very fact that John O. Mudd does not mention religious brothers along with sisters and priests in running Catholic health institutions in his article From C.E.O. to Mission Leader (7/18) leads me to believe that he is not aware of the success of the Alexian Brothers in combining sound management practices with a sense of mission. Some time ago they stopped running old red brick facilities and now have replaced them with at least six modern institutions stretching from Milwaukee to Signal Mountain, Tenn., all of them recognized for maintaining their sense of mission combined with management expertise. A few brothers and many dedicated lay leaders have done this.

Francis Jordan

Arts & CultureBooks
Progress of a Poet's Soul
Robert Bove
W H Auden - who like T S Eliot was pre-eminent in 20th century English-language poetry - remained at or near the center of Western cultural life from the 1920 rsquo s until his death in the early 1970 rsquo s With his gaze focused unflinchingly on matters great and small during those years A
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Consultations Shape Future of Church in New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina Following the devastation inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, the Archdiocese of New Orleans, La., has begun to plan its rebuilding. Prior to Katrina, the archdiocese numbered 491,000 Catholics. Questions facing the planners inc
Arts & CultureBooks
Don't Box Him In
Doris Donnelly
If she were a name-dropper Jane Kopas might tell us that she and Pope John XXIII agree about many things She would agree with his opening address at the Second Vatican Council when the pope attentive to reading the signs of the times said that the substance of the ancient doctrine of the deposi
Film
Good Knight: Good Night, and Good Luck
Richard A. Blake
"Nattering nabobs of negativism” was the phrase Spiro T. Agnew used to describe the press when he addressed the convention of California Republicans on Sept. 11, 1970. The vice president had his own reasons for despising what he called “the effete corps of impudent snobs.” Loc
Television
Life on Mars
Jim McDermott
In the sugarplum candyland of Neptune, Calif., the high school student Veronica Mars had it all--smarts, a cute boyfriend, a stable nuclear family and social status. It is true that, unlike most of her peers, she was not wealthy; as sheriff, her dad was actually closer to “the help.” But
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
James Martin, S.J.
Have you ever returned to a book that you enjoyed as a younger reader? The experience can be enjoyable, disappointing and surprising, all at once. Last month, in a book club at a local Jesuit parish, I reminded the group that our next selection would be Mr. Blue, by Myles Connolly. Mr. Blue! exclaimed one woman. I read that when I was in high school and loved it!
Arts & CultureBooks
The Key Link
Joseph A. Bracken
Anne Hunt an Australian Catholic theologian and author of several previous books on the doctrine of the Trinity aims in this book ldquo to explore and present the trinitarian nexus or interconnection of the mystery of the Trinity with the other great mysteries of the Christian faith rdquo Thus
The Catholic Church in China
Betty Ann Maheu
Mark, a Russian journalist, comes every year to the Holy Spirit Study Centre in Hong Kong for an update on the Catholic Church in China. This year he arrived right after the election of Pope Benedict XVI. “What is your opinion?” he asked. “Will Benedict XVI accomplish more than Joh