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Books
In this richly documented and thoroughly engaging memoir Joseph A Califano Jr recalls his years in Washington as a member of several administrations and as a partner in a powerful law firm From this vantage point Califano observed and participated in the national crises and unsettling cultural c
FaithOpinion
I was raised a Catholic. I know in my bones that I would not hold the views I hold today if it were not for the values I learned in Catholic school. I am, I think it is fair to say, a Midwestern, populist progressive in the tradition of Robert LaFollette, George Norris and Theodore Roosevelt. Their
Two prominent rabbis have denounced the failure of Catholics publicly to brand the recent film “The Passion of the Christ” as anti-Semitic. They spoke at the joint meeting on April 20 of the Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Affairs and the Rabbinical Council of Ameri
News
Bishop to Investigate Austrian SeminaryPope John Paul II appointed a special investigator to gather information on a pornography and sex scandal in an Austrian seminary. In a one-line statement, the Vatican announced on July 20 that the pope will send Bishop Klaus Küng of Feldkirch, Austria, a memb
FaithFaith in Focus
Something you don’t hear every day from a Jesuit: I’m here to pick up a cassock for my trip to Lourdes.
Books
While Ronald Reagan tagged Democrats with his tax and spend label it was his 1980 electoral adversary Jimmy Carter who while governing Georgia in the 1970 rsquo s pioneered zero-based budgeting in government the system by which each program rsquo s very existence must be justified every time spe
Of Many Things
Everyone recognizes that the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church was not caused only by the sinful failures of individual priests; it was also caused by the failure of a number of bishops to deal appropriately with these priests. There were not just personal failures; there were also personne
In December 1960, shortly after a Catholic Democrat had been elected president of the United States, Time magazine devoted a lengthy cover story to the topic “U.S. Catholics and the State.” The story focused on the work of John Courtney Murray, S.J., and his then-recently published book,
Columns
As the Roman world began to disintegrate and the emperor was far from home fighting wars on the Rhine, a group known as the Alemanni advanced from Germany to the very outskirts of the great global city. In this emergency, wrote Edward Gibbon in his masterful tale of Rome’s decline and fall, th
Film
The worm turns. Last spring the religious right made such a fuss about the polychrome piosities of Mel Gibson that even card-carrying atheists had to line up to see what all the buzz was about. Every action has its reaction, so now the sanctimonious left has created an even greater fuss about Michae
The Word
The phrase ldquo seeing is believing rdquo is well known to us all It suggests skepticism it implies that we will not accept the truth of something unless we can somehow see it While the phrase may validly express a concern for verification it contradicts basic religious ideas To paraphrase t
Books
If Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka are arguably the grandfathers of Nigerian literature and Ben Okri and Buchi Emecheta are their successors Chris Abani Chimamanda Adichie and Helen Habila would appear to be coming into their own these days as the next wave Adichie author of Purple Hibiscus Alg
Editorials
The conventional wisdom about presidential election campaigns is that the American voting public does not begin to pay attention until after the Labor Day weekend. For both Democrats and Republicans the candidates have been clearly identified long in advance of the national conventions in which they
Sad? Unbelievable? Outrageous? Whatever one thinks about the recent bankruptcy filing by the Archiocese of Portland, Ore., it is certainly unprecedented. And it is taking the Catholic Church down an uncertain and uncharted legal path. Portland’s Archbishop John Vlazny has sought the protection
Letters
Thoughtful Advice
I’m glad that Cardinal Avery Dulles stood up for the rights of priests to receive due process when they are accused of wrongdoing (6/21). As he points out, the definition of sexual abuse has been expanded to include even verbal offenses, while at the same time the public embarrassment and losses from even being accused innocently have increased greatly. It is no service to one group (those alleging abuses) to take away the legitimate rights of another (those accused of abuses).
In the meantime, as Cardinal Dulles’s thoughtful article is published, the Vatican has promoted Cardinal Law to a major church in Rome, has dragged its feet on dealing with priest discipline actions and as yet has not punished or removed one American bishop for wrongdoing in the entire sexual abuse scandal. Maybe Cardinal Dulles can offer his colleagues in Rome some thoughtful advice next!
Frank O’Hara
Books
The dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration Joseph S Nye Jr coined the term ldquo soft power rdquo in the late 1980 rsquo s In Bound to Lead 1990 and The Paradox of American Power 2001 he developed the
The Word
What can one say about the assumption of Mary There is no mention of it in the Scriptures That of course does not invalidate the feast It simply means that its full theological meaning is found outside of the readings selected for its celebration These readings however provide us with insigh
Faith in Focus
I decided while Iwas living with nuns that I wanted to be a priest. I live with two of them, Pat and Ellenrita, and a fellow my own age, Mark, who’s also serving a Dominican Volunteer year in the Bronx. The nuns are pretty easy to live with, once you learn to clean up the shower, make sure nob
You have come to Pasadena, Calif., the cradle of Pentecostalism, to study at the school of theology most associated with that movement, Fuller Theological Seminary. Why? In the Philippines, I studied theology between 1984 and 1988, and afterward taught in a seminary. By 1991, the year of the Se