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Faith in Focus
Whenever I hear someone say, “Offer it up,” I remember Sally. Sally had a fondness for sweets, but they weren’t good for her. Every time she spied me sneaking a cookie or candy bar, she would stare intently at me, hoping I would feel guilty and share. “Offer it up,” I w
After I graduated from high school, I became a professional firefighter in Kansas City, Mo. Going through drill school, I learned that some fires can be extinguished only by taking away their fuel. In some cases, uncontrolled fire can be stopped most effectively when it encounters blackened ash.It w
Books
Not long ago I heard several chaplains of a major U S children rsquo s hospital speak on ldquo spirituality and medicine rdquo After a review of recent scientific studies linking prayer faith and physical health one of the speakers gasped ldquo When I hear such exciting news all I can say
The Word
One of the most impressive scenes in the movie ldquo The Wizard of Oz rdquo is Dorothy rsquo s entrance into the Land of Oz At that moment the original sepia tones of the film become brilliant Technicolor Tornado-beaten earth gives way to a boldly colorful magical land where everything is stra
Letters
View of Jesus
Your Of Many Things column on March 17 referred to Jesus Before Christianity, by Albert Nolan, O.P. For six years in the late 1970’s, my family and I lived in Cape Town, South Africa, during which I did a three-year certificate program at the Kolbe School of Theology.
One of our three main teachers was Father Nolan. We had the privilege of reading Jesus Before Christianity the year before it was published. It was and is still a refreshing, provocative view of Jesus, which dramatically deepened my earlier beliefs and made them much more real. That change has persisted. My memory is that he had a similar impact on the other participants.
What a wonderful difference a single individual can make!
Terry J. van der Werff
Editorials
‘Fog of war” is a notorious euphemism for the unanticipated consequences of armed conflict. As active-duty and retired officers have attested during the first weeks of the Iraqi war, the battle plan changes the moment armed forces go into combat. As Iraqi Fedayeen have disguised themselv
This series focuses on the world of devotions in the life of contemporary believers. America asked a number of Catholics to speak about a favorite devotionits history, its place in the writer’s life and its possible role in the life of contemporary believers. In this seventh part of the series
Books
Yann Martel won Britain rsquo s most prestigious literary award the Man Booker Prize for Life of Pi a book that reinvents the lost-at-sea novel in quite striking terms Martel himself has been storm-tossed in a controversy about whether he inappropriately employed the premise of a 1981 story by M
News
Charity Groups Protest Military Oversight of Iraqi AidThe Catholic Church’s top charity officials are protesting coalition military plans to oversee humanitarian aid distribution in Iraq, seeing it as part of a worrying trend in recent years toward militarizing aid. Two weeks into the U.S.-led
By the time this column appears, the war in Iraq may be, for the time being, over. But as I write, we are in the thick of it. It started with bad omens: early prisoners of war, deaths by friendly fire, colliding helicopters, an American seemingly killing his fellow soldiers by hand grenades. A wild
After a decade of the greatest economic expansion in the nation’s history, state governments are drowning in tidal waves of red ink, placing safety net services, the common good and the lives of vulnerable persons at risk. Although far from alone, Oregon is a prominently cited example. With it
In the current practice of the Catholic Church in the United States, people are free to receive Communion either in the open hand or on the tongue. Although I have not conducted a survey, my impression from presiding at both student and parish liturgies is that the practice tends to vary largely alo
Books
In 1970 at the age of 56 Alec Guinness by then one of the best-known character actors in the world sat for a formal portrait Michael Noakes the artist recognized the overwhelming challenge of the task ldquo How does one paint what lies beneath the surface of the skin rdquo asks biographer
The Word
When I was a child I climbed up on a billboard to see a soldier who had returned from an unpopular assignment We waved flags and cheered It was thrilling despite the fact that this hero had come home in disgrace I was proud that I could say ldquo I was there I saw him rdquo I wonder what
Editorials
Medicare, the health insurance program for Americans over 65, is getting much attention these days, because of the president’s much-contested plan to provide prescription benefits for low-income seniors. Medicaid, on the other hand, which is supposed to provide medical care for poor people of
Books
Lest anyone forget a war is still being fought in Afghanistan Moreover the capture or death of Osama bin Laden does not signal victory in that campaign If the objective is to make that region a less receptive host to future terrorists then Afghans on the ground will decide success This will be
An overarching crisis in today’s church is a crisis of faith; not faith in God, not faith in Jesus Christ, but a crisis of faith in the institutional church. Members of an older generation have felt a certain testing of faith since the mid-1960’s. They remember their childhood: novenas,
I grew up three blocks from St. Mary, Help of Christians Church in West Allis, Wis. At the time, the parish sponsored no school, so my sister and I were enrolled in the school of a neighboring parish. But with the exception of school events, my entire religious life centered around St. Mary’s.
The autumn and winter have been consumed with the debate about Iraq, but decisions about Iraq are part of a more comprehensive policy vision announced by the Bush administration in its National Security Statement of September 2002. Here is a summary of the major themes of the statement, a survey of
The United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Scheidler v. National Organization for Women, Inc. on Feb. 26. The question before the court was whether the massive pro-life abortion protest demonstrations of the 1980’s and 90’s constituted acts of extortion under the federal exto