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

Clear filter
Dalit Means Broken
John Francis Izzo
"Is that stuff still going on?” the American college professor asked incredulously. He had heard of a Dalit boy whose college acceptance was revoked because he broke a coconut in his temple in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The boy, overjoyed at having graduated with honors
Film
Of Clay and Wattles Made: Million Dollar Baby
Richard A. Blake
In 1931, as the Depression tightened its grip on the American imagination, a very young Bing Crosby recorded a Harry Warren jazz ballad with the words, “I found a million dollar baby in a five-and-ten-cent store.” The song became a hit, and its singer went on to become one of the great i
Arts & CultureBooks
The Old Manse and Beyond
Gerald T. Cobb
On his honeymoon Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife Sophia read to each other the entirety of Milton rsquo s Paradise Lost an apt symbol for Hawthorne rsquo s persistent preoccupation with issues of sin guilt and redemption To mark the 200th anniversary last summer of Hawthorne rsquo s birth th
The Same Old Story
Ellen Rufft
I always cringe when our convent doorbell rings after 10 o’clock, as it did the other night. It’s not in fear that a terrorist or some shady character might be outside. Rather, it’s the scenario that I feel certain will unfold as soon as I open the door. I have played a part in the
Portfolio
Painting the Holy
Michael O'Neill McGrath
The question put to me most frequently as an artist is, “How long did it take to paint that?” I suspect if you were to poll other artists, they might tell you the same thing. To me this fascination with time spent at the easel is curious. It also strikes me as a bit humorous, since the q
Letters
Letters

Homiletic Material

As a baby priest, age 58 and three-and-a-half years ordained, I am constantly on the lookout for homiletic material. Frequently a Faith in Focus or Of Many Things column fits the bill. As a case in point, the neighborly exchange of keys related by James Martin, S.J., in the latter on Jan. 17 struck a familiar chord. Last summer, after locking myself out of the old family house, I was rescued by such a key, which my mother, deceased over six years, had entrusted many, many years ago to a neighbor. After Mom’s death, I had thought about retrieving the key but never followed through. Good thing I didn’t! Of course, much more than keys are involved. I sense a future Christmas homily in the works here. Perhaps theosis in the exchange of house keys between neighbors?

(Rev.) Edward Kolla

Arts & CultureBooks
Identity Crisis
William C. Rickle
Samuel Huntington the Harvard professor who gave us The Clash of Civilizations and The Remaking of World Order has weighed in on the current discussions of religion politics race and ethnicity with his extended meditation or rather screed on American national identity It is a maddening book
Editorials
Not So Fast, Mr. President
The Editors
Shortly after his re-election, President Bush said: Hey, were going to reform Social Security, and I really mean it this time. He also wants to move quickly. In mid-January he told reporters that he wants his proposed reforms to be approved by Congress within the first five months of this year. To t
A Victory for People Like Us
William A. Galston
In the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, the Washington Post reporter David Finkel interviewed white evangelical voters in the small town of Sheffield, Ohio. The Leslie family had seen its annual income drop from $55,000 in 2001 to $35,000 in 2004. It did not affect their vote: Jobs will
Arts & CultureBooks
Shadow Land
James S. Torresn
Postmodern poetry these days as practiced by some leaders of poetic taste shows little interest in communication It juxtaposes unconnected bits that surprise us by their odd change of direction Stuart Dybek rsquo s slim volume comes as welcome relief His poems actually compute Dybek a professo
Editorials
Innocence and the Death Penalty
The Editors
Despite high-profile death sentences like Scott Peterson’s in California, public support for the death penalty is falling. The reasons lie partly in mounting evidence that innocent people have been condemned andin some casesput to death. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in
FaithFeatures
He Held These Truths
Robert W. McElroy
John Courtney Murray is the most significant Catholic theologian the church in the United States has ever produced.
Secrets Behind The Forbidden Books
Tom Heneghan
It was the most ambitious censorship drive the world has ever known, and the Rev. Hubert Wolf wants to reveal its secrets. Not only that, he wants to turn the Index of Forbidden Books inside out, posting on the Internet for all to see a guide to the confidential debates that lay behind it. Wolf is a
Letters
Letters

Continue to Inspire

On behalf of the National Religious Vocation Conference, I want to congratulate and to thank you for the positive portrayal of women religious you have featured in recent issues of America (e.g., 11/15/04, 1/3/05, 1/17/05). The American church owes tremendous gratitude to our religious sisters, who with profound faith, hard work, little money and great ingenuity substantially contributed to the Catholic institutions and ministries we proudly celebrate today.

Although they are now fewer in number, they continue to inspire us with their stories of love, fidelity and sacrifice in the service of God’s people. In a culture that promotes a distorted value system of sex, greed and power, may the stories of these generous, faith-filled women encourage others to consider religious life as an alternative life option that, when lived with joy and integrity, can be both exciting and fulfilling.

Paul Bednarczyk, C.S.C.

Arts & CultureBooks
Preserving the Church's Identity
Robert P. Imbelli
Roger Haight past president of the Catholic Theological Society of America is one of the most prolific and methodologically astute practitioners of theology today The present volume the first of two devoted to the project of ldquo historical ecclesiology rdquo builds upon the approach to theo
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pro-Life Events Mark Roe v. Wade AnniversaryIn what was the first large-scale Roe v. Wade anniversary demonstration in San Francisco, 7,000 pro-lifers marched down San Francisco’s Embarcadero, along the city’s waterfront, in the Walk for Life West Coast on Jan. 22, the 32nd anniversary o
Religion and Science in Dialogue
David M. Byers
During the nearly 20 years I served as staff director of the Catholic bishops’ Committee on Science and Human Values, I frequently made the case that the annual dialogues the bishops conducted with scientists were a form of evangelization. The proposition usually provoked blank stares. Accordi
Faith in Focus
United in Protest
Caitlin Becker
Some came because of their faith. Some came to speak out for social justice. Some came for political reasons. They were there, as they are every year on Nov. 19-21. But was their presence enough? More than 13,000 people, many of them college students, converged on the city of Columbus, Ga., to prote
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
Drew Christiansen
C. S. Lewis wrote of “Hamlet” that it was best to read the play like a small child. Children never tire of hearing stories over and over again. They relish atmosphere, and they never forget details that seem insignificant to adults. One of the joys of growing older, I find, is hearing an
Arts & CultureBooks
If You Have Ears to Hear...
David Gibson
One of the few fortunate byproducts of these wrenching years of crisis in the Catholic Church is the emergence of voices that might not otherwise have been raised and the attention paid to earlier prophets whose words might have gone overlooked The writings of the Rev Donald Cozzens could fit into