Why does God at times seem to take the wisest among us so terribly early John Howard Griffin was only 60 when he died in 1980 partly of complications from diabetes partly from his brave experiment more than 20 years before He had chemically darkened his skin to see for himself and since he was a

Politicians and Bishops Call for BipartisanshipAs the second razor-thin presidential election in a row was declared a victory for President George W. Bush on Nov. 3, the candidates and the Catholic bishops of the United States looked ahead to soothing bitter partisanship from the campaign. In his co

Like many divorced and remarried Catholics, I looked down on the church’s annulment process, viewing it as cover for Catholic divorce, a process tinged with hypocrisy, reserved for the rich and powerful. Then one day, Walter Modrys, S.J., my pastor at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in Manha

My cousin telephoned to say Aunt Bib is dead. The funeral is two days hence. No need to wait; at 94 she has outlived all her peers. The pastor will officiate. Of course, I reply. Will you sing, she asks? Of course. And you’ll come back to the house afterward? Of course. It will be good to have

What are the challenges facing health care in America and will the members of America rsquo s 350 000 religious congregations be able to help prevent or lessen the looming health care crisis unleashed by relentless demographic pressures and rising costs That is the question addressed in this book

Campaign 2004 is in its final frantic hours as these words are being written, but deadlines being what they arethe bane of the bellowing pontificatoryou’ll be reading this after the results are known. Then again, maybe not. Maybe you’re as clueless as I am as I write, although that would

This morning we confirm our commitment to this cause for which the Jesuits of Central American University in El Salvador gave their lives. They were not men of violence; they were men of peace and reason. Yet they died violently. Like the Servant of Yahweh, they did not cry out or shout out aloud or

Two ladies of a certain age sitting behind me gasped during the opening sequence. The young hero Adam Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) first appears on screen walking toward the camera as his voice-over explains in spectacularly scabrous terms his bewilderment with the universe. Those of us who deal on

Back when President Bill Clinton rsquo s pledge to ldquo end welfare as we know it rdquo was known in White House corridors as ldquo EWAWKI rdquo pronounced to rhyme with Milwaukee Jason DeParle senior writer at The New York Times was closer to the policy story than any reporter DeParle cou

Cynthia Ozick is a storyteller with an acute sense of the world Her stories are parables and her novels have the precision of Jamesian prose coupled with wit and deep philosophical import Her novel Heir to the Glimmering World renders the lives of refugees and outcasts with humor and empathy and

Social Doctrine Compendium Promotes Human Dignity, Common GoodThe God-given dignity of humans and the obligation to promote the common good of all the world’s people require the Catholic Church to speak on social issues, says the new Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The church&

I vividly remember first seeing Karl Rahner in 1964 at Georgetown University’s 175th anniversary celebration. A major symposium had been prepared, during which he delivered—that is to say, William Dych, S.J., read for him—the great lecture on the theology of freedom. Awestruck, I s

In light of the present worldwide prestige of the papacy it comes as a shock to realize that less than a century and a quarter ago an anticlerical mob tried to interrupt Pope Pius IX rsquo s funeral procession determined to throw the pope rsquo s corpse into the Tiber And it seems like ancient hi

I do not often agree with Michael Novak but the subtitle of his new book attracted me anyone willing to show that Samuel Huntington rsquo s dramatic prediction of a clash of civilizations is wrong is someone I want very much to read Unfortunately Novak mentions Huntington only in passing and neve

My sister is leaving her husband. The last intact marriage of my dad’s six children is coming apart in the face of her husband’s bizarre symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. My brother-in-law returned from Vietnam with multiple decorations, including two purple hearts. He also bro

Were he still alive to celebrate his 100th birthday this year, Josef Pieper would probably be surprised to see that today there is greater need than ever for some of his major insights. In today’s workaholic culture, Pieper’s small masterpiece Leisure: The Basis of Culture remains an ant

Cornel West rsquo s Democracy Matters is a fervent heartfelt and angry jeremiad about the current state of American society Democracy the author states at the outset is being or already has been snuffed out in America by three dominating tendencies free market fundamentalism militaristic inte

Like yeast in dough, for 40 years ecumenism has been quietly leavening the life of the churches. It is so much taken for granted that we often do not recognize how different the shape of Christian life is today from 50 years ago and how close the churches have grown. For centuries, hymnody divided C