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The Word
Mi Casa, Su Casa
Dianne Bergant
Whenever we travel on vacation we are dependent on the hospitality of others We may have to pay for it but the quality of their openness to us either enhances or detracts from our enjoyment Through hospitality we are made to feel as if we are at home And when we feel at home we want to stay In
The Perils of Freedom
Jens Soering
When I saw Joe again, my first thought was: I want to kill him! Slowly if possible, though quickly would do in a pinch. Just so long as I could tell him why he had to die before he breathed his last.Joe had come back to prison, and to old-timers like me that was the worst crime imaginable. Back in t
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Bishops Approve 2004 Abuse Policy AuditsThe U.S. bishops have approved on-site audits this year of all U.S. dioceses to monitor compliance with policies to prevent sexual abuse of children. The vote was 207 to 14 in favor with one abstention, according to a news release issued in Denver on June 15 b
Fading Faith in Free Trade
Robert A. Senser
In a Presidential election year that has evoked controversy about trade, it is especially tempting to cast the opinions about the issues into pro-free trade versus anti-free trade molds. But that dichotomy obscures the real issues and muddles public discussion and decision-making.A little-noticed po
Books
Old Meets New
Russell B. Connors, Jr.
Yes When I read I write lots of notes in the margins What I wrote most often in the margins of this book by James Bretzke is simply yes yes what a fine way of putting things yes what a wonderful example yes I think I rsquo ll use that idea in my own course on Christian morality next time ar
The Word
The Cost of Discipleship
Dianne Bergant
Dietrich Bonhoeffer a German Lutheran theologian wrote a series of reflections on the Sermon on the Mount entitled The Cost of Discipleship in which he maintained that discipleship requires us to make a fundamental decision to follow Jesus and to accept the conseuences of that decision His own r
Caught Between God and Caesar
Joseph A. Califano Jr.
When God and Caesar claim controlling jurisdiction over public policy in America, public servants who are Catholic can get caught between a religious rock and a public policy hard place. I know. I’ve been there. In 1965 Lyndon Johnson became the first president to support birth control as a pu
Artificial Feeding
John F. Kavanaugh
At a recent international congress in Rome on “Life-Sustaining Treatments and the Vegetative State,” Pope John Paul II ignited a controversy that is still smoking. He stated that artificial nutrition and hydration “should be considered, in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pope Tells Bush of Deep Concern About IraqIn their first meeting since the Iraq war, Pope John Paul II told U.S. President George W. Bush he was deeply concerned about the grave unrest in Iraq and called for a speedy restoration of the country’s sovereignty. During a 50-minute encounter on Jun
Books
Desert Odyssey
Robert F. Walch
The Sahara has never been a very hospitable place least of all for interlopers from Western countries Sailors who found themselves shipwrecked on the treacherous North African coast were subjected not only to brutal treatment by the warrior tribes of the Sahara but also to the harsh elements of th
FaithFeatures
Should politicians be refused communion?
The Rev. John P. Beal
When Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, was asked at a press conference in Rome on April 23 whether Senator John F. Kerry should be denied Communion, he responded: “The law of the church is clear. The church exists in the United
FaithFeatures
Rights of accused priests: Toward a revision of the Dallas charter and the essential norms
Avery Dulles
The church must protect the community from harm, but it must also protect the human rights of each individual who may face an accusation.
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Something Sacred

I want to thank Drew Christiansen, S.J., for his recent Memorial Day reflection (5/24) and to tell him how much his words and thoughts resonated with my eighth-grade students at The American School in London. Though few of our students here at the A.S.L. are British, we are guests in a country that still reveres Wilfred Owen and the soldier poets of World War I. Every one of my students knows Dulce et Decorum Est, and “the old Lie” is hardly lost on these 13-year-olds, whose perceptions of America have been shaken both by the events themselves and by the BBC’s reports of the war during the past year and a half. However, Father Christiansen’s frustration at being denied the right to honor those who have lost their lives during the Iraq war is something our eighth graders here can understand, perhaps in a slightly different way.

We have just returned from a weeklong excursion visiting the American, British and Canadian landing beaches at Normandy. We laid a wreath at St. Laurent Cemetery; each student placed a poppy (the flower still worn on many a lapel each Remembrance Day) on the grave of a soldier from his or her home state. Our Israeli students walked tentatively around the teutonic crosses marking the German soldiers’ graves at LeCambe Cemetery, and a few kids became emotional reading the poetic inscriptions and viewing all the flowers that adorn the graves at the British cemetery.

Many of these young people had never seen or visited a cemetery. Many do not believe in God, let alone the Resurrection. For some of our 132 eighth graders, this was the first time they had ever experienced something sacred: consecrated ground, hallowed by the thousands of young men just a few years older than themselves, who gave their lives so that we might live. This did sink in, and it is comforting to know that even as the number of World War II veterans is thinning, there are young people who are still moved by their stories and their sacrifices. Perhaps this is the “anthem for doomed youth” our students will carry with them.

Susan O’Connell

The Word
Two Sides of the Coin
Dianne Bergant
The readings for today offer us two conflicting images One is of abundance and rejoicing the other is of the cross and self-denial One might think that these two images cannot be harmonized But if we look carefully at their messages we can see how they really do fit together Isaiah rsquo s mess
Books
Balance Might With Right
Jim Sawyer
The inordinate power of the United States under George W Bush according to Jim Garrison president of State of the World which is based in San Francisco disturbs people on the American left but excites people on the American right Conservatives view the fall of the Soviet empire as Ronald Reaga
Prophecy for Justice: Catholic politicians and bishops
Raymond L. Burke
In his post-synodal apostolic exhortation Pastores Gregis (“On the Bishop, Servant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the Hope of the World,” Oct. 16, 2003), Pope John Paul II underlines the scriptural boldness demanded of the bishop as shepherd (No. 66c). In this context, he describes th
Editorials
Christians in the World
The Editors
The early Christians lived in a police state and were judged subversive if they refused to worship the Roman emperor. Yet even during periods of persecution, these Christians insisted they were law-abiding citizens. The anonymous author of a short second-century essay known as the Letter to Diognetu
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Cancer cut short the life of my friend Regina. Barely into her 50’s, she had been working on behalf of immigrants in New York City. A lump on her breast turned out to be a malignant tumor. She told me about it on a Sunday autumn afternoon as we sat on a bench in New York’s Bryant Park. T
The Word
All You Can Eat!
Dianne Bergant
This feast combines two previously separate celebrations Originally each feast concentrated on one aspect of the awesome mystery of the Eucharist Christ rsquo s body or his blood Joined with each other they bring together the depth and richness of this theology Looking first at important theme
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Archbishop Closes Parishes, Urges UnityArchbishop Sean P. O’Malley, O.F.M.Cap., of Boston announced on May 25 that 70 of the archdiocese’s 357 parishes would be suppressed in the coming months. In addition to the suppressions, five new parishes will be formed and five other church buildi