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Robert W. McElroy
Now that the turbulence surrounding the 2004 presidential election has abated, it is critical to revisit a question that deeply divided both the Catholic bishops and the Catholic laity during the heated months of summer: Should Catholic public officials who endorse the continued legalization of abor
Poetry
Barbara Crooker
I’m sitting here doing nothing, soaking up
The Word
Dianne Bergant
Ash Wednesday launches us into the season of Lent The themes of the day are quite sobering The ashes placed on our foreheads are meant to call to mind the inevitability of death as one of the accompanying prayers reminds us ldquo You are dust and to dust you shall return rdquo Ash Wednesday
News
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Vatican May Reopen Old Abuse ComplaintsA previously dormant case against Marcial Maciel Degollado, L.C., founder of the Legionaries of Christ, could be reopened at the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a Vatican lawyer said in a letter to three former members of the Legionaries who
Film
Richard A. Blake
Each of the four characters in Closer, Mike Nichols’s adaptation of Patrick Marber’s play, inhabits a world of surfaces. Larry (Clive Owen) is a dermatologist, who by the nature of his specialization avoids the inner workings of his patients, and can even rearrange appearances to suit hi
Letters

Government and Religion

Edward F. Harrington, in The Metaphorical Wall (1/17), effectively debunks the prevailing mythology about government and religion. The framers of the Constitution quite clearly sought to insulate religion from the reach of government; they did not seek to inoculate society from religious expression. But as Terry Golway points out in the same issue, Matters of Which We Dare Not Speak, the invocation of separation of church and state may be the preferred legal strategy, but it is fear and outright loathing of public expressions of religion and faith that is really at work. In short, there is more than flawed jurisprudential reasoning that is driving this issue.

William Donohue

John F. Kavanaugh
A great weight was settling on me during Christmas week. There were deaths among friends, Jesuit brothers and family, but the most haunting face of death came with an ocean of destruction called the tsunami. In a matter of hours, it killed over 150,000 people, most of them children. At noon on Jan.
Guy Consolmagno
During the French Revolution, a bishop was brought to the guillotine for execution. But when the blade flew down, it stopped an inch short of cutting off his head. “It’s a miracle,” cried the crowd, and the bishop was released. Next, a philosopher was brought forward; but again, th
Arts & CultureBooks
Gerald R. Blaszczak
In the sort of paradox typical of the Christian story as the number of Jesuits in the United States declines it appears that more and more lay women and men find themselves deeply attracted to and committed to the Ignatian spiritual tradition mdash to such an extent that many like Ronald Modras
Columns
Terry Golway
At midday on Christmas Eve, I found myself under a large white tent adjacent to St. John’s Church in downtown Newark, where I was mingling with hundreds of poor and homeless people from that impoverished and battered city. I wish I could tell you I was there out of the goodness of my heart, gi
Connie Albrizio
In 1984, my husband and I were struggling in our home in Windsor, Conn., to keep a healthy balance with five children, an aged mother and three grandchildren. I hassled town officials for a permit to open and operate a beauty salon in the basement of our home. The granting of the zoning variance was
The Word
Dianne Bergant
A clever advertisement for cellular phone service has found a niche in the popular consciousness The question ldquo Can you hear me now rdquo suggests that with this system reception is good anywhere in the world mdash if you are open to the call This all sounds like a vocation ad mdash not me
Editorials
The Editors
It struck without warning on working families in poor fishing villages and on vacationing tourists in upscale resorts. The tsunami, caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake 155 miles southeast of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of Sumatra, killed more than 150,000 people and left millions homeless al
Arts & CultureBooks
Bill McGarvey
When Columbia Records celebrated Bob Dylan rsquo s 30th anniversary in the music business in 1992 they feted him with a star-studded concert at Madison Square Garden During the long evening of music legendary artists paid homage to rock rsquo s poet laureate by performing incredible songs from th
Edward F. Harrington
Martin Luther King Jr. fought zealously to achieve for all the equality promised by the Declaration of Independence. His passion for justice was inspired by the Scriptures and the spirituals of his religion. The equality he fought for was an equality created first by God. Yet in the United States of
Letters

Adopted Sons

Adoption: A Life-Giving Choice, by Thomas P. Muldoon (11/29), recalled to me a poignant personal experience. Several weeks ago I attended by accident (I had wandered into the wrong room) a session on adoption at the Lesbian and Gay Center in lower Manhattan. The principal speakers were a gay couple who had arranged to adopt a baby from the woman who was carrying it. The couple would pay all the mother’s expenses, and considerably more to the adoption agency, but there was no guarantee that the mother would give the baby up for adoption in the end. As I listened to the partners speak, I was struck more and more by how much over the period of the pregnancy they had bonded with the mother in ways that probably transformed their lives as well as hers. The men are relatively well-off urban professionals; she is poor, rural, and something of a substance-abuser.

One incident in their relationship remains in my mind. She already had a 2-year-old boy, whom she feared officials might take from her. One day she called the men in desperation. The 2-year-old was sick and had been crying for four days. She was afraid to take him to an emergency room lest her own noncompliance with drug rules be discovered, but she was even more afraid that she might hit the child in desperation. She had no one else to turn to. One of the men immediately got on a plane and flew across the country to stay with the woman and care for the child until the crisis was over.

Of course it was in his self-interest to do so, but what came through so strongly during the hourlong presentation and discussion was how two gay men and a straight, single mother of totally dissimilar social, economic and cultural backgrounds broke barriers to work together in the best interests of a child. Their now-adopted son is 2 years old and looks exactly like his 4-year-old brother had looked two years previously. Undoubtedly, some gay couples should not adopt children, but on the whole, can one think of an act that is more generous, loving and, in the end, Christ-like?

Frank Oveis

The Word
Dianne Bergant
Idealistic young people are not the only people who yearn to change the world Committed social workers and politicians share that desire as do scientific and medical researchers Parents always say that they want a better world for their children Teachers too seek to equip students with the skill
News
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Catholic Agencies Mobilize for ReliefAs the death toll from the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunamis soared, Pope John Paul II praised the international community for rapidly mobilizing aid efforts and said the church’s charitable agencies were doing the same. In a statement on Dec. 30, Carita
Arts & CultureBooks
Kathy O'Connell
There is something of an unwritten rule among many writers that unless you rsquo re a celebrity or have done something truly extraordinary you shouldn rsquo t come out with a memoir until you hit at least retirement age if not beyond That rationale counts even more if you rsquo re a journalist It
Tom Beaudoin
During the raucous postseason baseball celebrations near Fenway Park in Boston, a young woman named Victoria Snelgrove from Emerson College was killed by police, who apparently shot her in the eye with pepper spray. The Boston Herald published graphic pictures of her, and much of Bostonand the count