Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Clear filter
Poetry
Sudden Widow
Barbara J. Morejohn

After he was gone,

The Word
Get Me to the Church on Time!
John R. Donahue
The coming weeks present a troika of parables that conclude the public teaching of Jesus in Matthew These constitute his final testament to the disciples a manual of discipleship for life ldquo between the times rdquo of Jesus rsquo earthly presence and his triumphant return They have a menaci
Books
Creating a Personal Retreat
John Predmore
The day after I finished reading Margaret Silf rsquo s Wayfaring I had an encounter with a young woman who helped me experience the value of this magnificent book about journeying I was riding my bicycle along the Boston side of the Charles River when I saw a woman whose eyes were filled with tear
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
George M. Anderson
Small art galleries abound in Manhattan, and one of them—the AXA Gallery—is only a few blocks from America House. During the summer it featured an exhibit called “Testimony: Vernacular Art of the African American South.” I stopped by to see it several times, drawn by the work
Letters
Letters
Our readers

Ubiquitous and Protean

Buried in the substantial disinformation throughout the Rev. Andrew R. Baker’s Ordination and Same Sex Attraction (9/30), old chestnuts about allegedly effeminate affective manners and proper masculine behavior most alerted my historian’s antennae. As Carolyn Dean shows in her fine recent study of sexuality between 1918 and 1940 (The Frail Social Body: Pornography, Homosexuality, and Other Fantasies in Interwar France [2000]), the crushing evidence of World War I trenches forced postwar medical doctors to abandon their fin-de-sicle belief that a male’s feminine appearance indicated same sex attraction. As a consequence, anxiety ran rampant among cultural critics throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s: if effeminate men might be heterosexual while masculine men might actually be inverts, then appearances could no longer be relied upon. Anyone might be passing for straight, raising the specter that inversion was both more ubiquitous and protean than previously thought. (The example of the burly rugby-playing hero of Sept. 11’s Flight 93, Mark Binghama gay mannicely illustrates the present-day anxieties over prudent doubt and moral certitude.) In several ways, Father Baker’s essay reflects the very latest in 19th-century thought: fascinating reading for the professional historian, but perhaps not more widely helpful.

Stephen Schloesser, S.J.

Faith in Focus
The Sandbox and the Incarnation: The Risk of AnonymityModel of MarginalityModern-Day St. JosephBlessed Anonymity
Michael J. Daley
It was unusually hot that July afternoon. Cara had just asked me for some more water so that the sand would pack better. Sweating, frustrated and with a two-year-old getting the best of me, I said to myself, “What are you doing?” Here I was stuck in the backyard, trapped in a sandbox, an
Books
No One Righteous
Tom OBrien
The physicist Niels Bohr once said The opposite of a true statement is a false statement But the opposite of a very true statement may very well be another true statement Contrary to postmodernist hijackings as in the play Copenhagen modern physics is not about the absence of truth but the pr
The Aftermath
Thomas P. Sweetser
In the first century, Peter had a dream in Joppa, a strange dream that encouraged him to eat prohibited food that was common and unclean. This was not kosher. Then he heard a knock at the door. A group of gentiles, sent by Cornelius, asked him to come with them to Caesarea. He agreed, mystified by t
Some Basics About Celibacy
FaithFaith and Reason
The History Behind Celibacy and the Priesthood
John W. O’Malley
Why and how did the celibate state became a requirement for ordination?
Columns
Sister Said...
Terry Golway
Parents make no end of compromises to accommodate the dubious wishes and tastes of their children (despite any number of memoirs that insist otherwise), and I am no exception. Long car rides invariably lead to pleas from the back seat for a musical distraction from the dreaded are-we-there-yet syndr
Blessed John's Call
Bernard R. Bonnot
On Sept. 11 we remembered the hole blasted in our world a year ago. On Oct. 11 we remembered the trumpet blast with which Blessed Pope John XXIII opened the Second Vatican Council 40 years ago. His speech on Oct. 11, 1962, set a direction and tone for the church and the world in our era that can hel
Books
Defining the Other'
Clayton Sinyai
The idea of citizenship has permeated our political atmosphere in recent years Surging immigration legal and illegal has compelled our political leaders and institutions to confront this issue Swelling populations of recently arrived Asians and Latinos have become a social force to be reckoned w
The Word
Job Description for Church Leaders
John R. Donahue
As the liturgical year winds down the church is less concerned with the number of shopping days until Christmas than with sobering reflections on the end of all days The Gospels conclude with Jesus rsquo final instructions to his disciples his final testaments which weave together words of hope
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Pope Introduces New Mysteries of the Rosary The rosary is a powerful prayer for peace, for families and for contemplating the mysteries of Christ’s life, Pope John Paul II said in a new apostolic letter. Pope John Paul marked the 24th anniversary of his election on Oct. 16 by signing the apost
The Potential of a Plenary Council
Philip J. Murnion
Eight bishops recently sent a proposal to the administrative committee of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for the convening of a plenary council of the bishops of the United States. Coincidentally, the editors of Church magazine, of whom I am one, circulated an editorial also calling for a p
Editorials
Design for Disaster
The Editors
Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president, was a military strategist who believed in the exercise of arms to advance U.S. interests. He was also a Nobel Peace Prize-winner who successfully negotiated an end to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5). His “Big Stick” policy—“Speak softly
Books
Praying Authentically
Denise Lardner Carmody
Michael Crosby is widely appreciated for his many gifts as a lecturer and author in the area of biblical spirituality He invariably brings to his audiences both clarity and commitment The clarity flows not only from his rhetorical prowess but from his considerable mastery of spirituality especial
News
Signs of the Times
From AP, CNS, RNS, Staff and other sources
Vatican Prepares Draft Against Admitting Gays to OrdinationThe Vatican has prepared a draft document containing directives against the admission of homosexuals to the priesthood, informed Vatican sources said. The document takes the position that since the church considers the homosexual orientation
Books
An Gorta Mr': The Great Hunger
Tom Deignan
In recent years several states have passed laws mandating that the Irish Famine of the 1840 rsquo s be taught in public schools alongside African slavery and the Jewish Holocaust Equating this trinity of horrors Famine curriculum supporters say is not only appropriate but historically enlighten
The Word
Still Marching In
John R. Donahue
During the moving memorials of the attacks on Sept 11 2001 we gazed upon a collage of the extraordinary goodness of ordinary people Those who would flinch if called saints acted just as saints did Today we celebrate such saints throughout the ages mdash that great cloud of witnesses whose lives