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Editorials
Ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, immigrants seeking to enter the United States have faced higher hurdles. This includes asylum seekers, and some have been treated in an especially painful and discriminatory manner. Among them are Haitians currently detained in south Florida. In their de
The Word
Church life in the last six months has been dominated by shameful actions of some of its priests and hierarchy and is now preoccupied although belatedly with protecting its most vulnerable members The fourth of the great discourses of Jesus in Matthew Ch 18 called the Sermon on the Church a
On the Fourth Sunday of Easter, I replaced my pastor as administrator of the parish of the Immaculate Conception in the Diocese of Raleigh. Under the diocesan Code of Professional Responsibility, he was removed by the bishop because of an allegation of sexual misconduct with a teenager that took pla
Of Many Things
A popular and pious saying is that God gives you the graces you need. This is thought to be especially true in your ministry or vocation. If you are a parent, for example, God will give you the graces you need to raise your children—like patience, compassion and wisdom. Likewise, to accomplish
Letters
Cautious Hope
The article by Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., linking Catholic and Evangelical theologies (7/15), is well crafted toward ecumenical hope. Another article is needed, however, to see the stark differences that indeed have grave implications for U.S. domestic and foreign policy. Most Evangelicals value charity but do not consider justice a Gospel imperative. In Central America, to the joy of elitist rulers, Evangelicals preach that poverty and the death of children are the will of God. Systemic sin is unacknowledged; financial success is the reward of right-eousness; weaponry is admired; enemies are satanic. An option for the poor or the oppressed matters little when the end-time is at hand. Why does this scare me about our president?
Robert J. Brophy
Faith in Focus
Today I failed that easy command of St. Paul, Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. While inmates at the prison where I work were smiling and rejoicing, I was on the verge of tears. It happened this way. Shortly after arriving at the prison, I noticed three inmates standing with
FaithThe Word
“Denying one’s self” is more profound than daily acts of “mortification.” It means displacing one’s self from the center of our consciousness while looking to the true self embodied by Jesus’ teaching.
Even though the U.S. bishops have adopted reforms to try to end the clerical scandals, do not expect any letup in the media’s focus on the church. View the past six months as a Catholic Watergate and expect consequences similar to those that presidents and political candidates have endured fro
News
Strike!Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma, chair of the U.S. bishops’ national review board, said that Catholics should use the power of the purse, the power to fill up the pews to force an egregiously recalcitrant bishop to live up to the charter. If a particular bishop is insensitive to this ago
This spring I was in Pakistan doing research on religious rituals among the country’s Shia Muslim population. As a Christian with an interest in interfaith dialogue, I make it a habit when I travel in Muslim countries also to learn about local Christian communities.On a beautiful Sunday mornin
The Word
Though Matthew stresses that the primary mission of Jesus was to the ldquo house of Israel rdquo in today rsquo s Gospel a non-Jewish woman draws him to a more universalistic vision Narrated by both Mark 7 24-30 and Matthew this story of courageous faith and boundary-crossing challenges the c
Columns
In the 1989 film National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Aunt Bethany (played by Mae Questal), the aunt of family patriarch Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase), travels to the Griswold family home in Chicago to celebrate Christmas. Clark asks Aunt Bethany, whose hearing is failing, to say grace before
Film
Road to Perdition begins and ends with a young boy looking out over Lake Michigan. His voice-over narration in the opening shot leads the way to the lengthy flashback that provides the story line of the film. The camera, however, stares out over the faceless waters with him, as though pondering his
Books
How many times have we mumbled our way through the Nicene Creed giving not a second thought to our firm vocalized belief in the revolutionary proposition that there shall be a ldquo resurrection of the body rdquo after death and not simply some vague new life for our immortal soul How often p
Conceived as an instrument of military tacticians, nurtured as a way to disseminate academic papers, imagined as a vast library, touted as a new economic frontier, the Internet has confounded all who sought to define its significance narrowly in purely practical terms. If we have learned anything, i
Of Many Things
On Sundays I sometimes pass the Church of the Ascension on lower Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, and I generally pause to admire its Gothic Revival brownstone exterior fronted by a small courtyard with boxwood bushes. But it was not until late one Sunday afternoon in May that I went inside—drawn by
Editorials
At Home in the Cosmos, the title of the last book written by David S. Toolan, S.J., can also serve to describe his life. When our longtime associate editor and treasured friend died on July 16, he did not know that his book had recently won an award for theological writing from the Catholic Press As
Houses of hospitality on the land”—this is how Dorothy Day described the Catholic Worker farms that began to spring up in the 1930’s. In May, I had occasion to visit one of them and experience a weekend’s hospitality at the Peter Maurin Farm in Marlboro, N.Y. The farm, named
Books
It was one of those chilling moments I was seated across from my parish priest who had just gotten back from an extended ldquo time away rdquo mdash yet unexplained When I mentioned my interest in a more disciplined prayer life perhaps to buy a breviary mdash the standard daily book of prayers
News
In Toronto, Pope Urges Youth to Follow Christ, Transform WorldCapping a week of prayer and celebration by more than 500,000 Catholic youths, Pope John Paul II urged the church’s younger generations to follow Christ and transform a world torn by hatred and terrorism. He also asked them to keep