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News
Revised Norms Support KeyElements of U.S. Bishops’ PolicyRevisions to the U.S. bishops’ norms for dealing with cases of sexual abuse by clergy reflect two overriding concerns on the part of the Vatican: revulsion at clerical sexual abuse of minors and apprehension over the possibility of
Editorials
When the bishops gather in Washington, D.C., for their annual November meeting, their agenda will include voting on a revised version of their 1992 pastoral letter, “When I Called for Help: A Pastoral Response to Domestic Violence Against Women.” Although the updated version makes use of
According to analysts and diplomats concerned with the Middle East, anti-American hostility—at all levels of society, but especially among the educated—is at an unparalleled high across the Arab world. The main cause of Arab anger, apparently, is the Bush administration’s obvious e
Letters
Most Respected
Avery Dulles, S.J., as the only American theologian ever to be raised to the College of Cardinals, is arguably, at least in the eyes of the Vatican, the most respected theologian in the country. Yet when he submits an article to your magazine on the important question of evangelization (10/21), you not only submit it to others for a comment to be published in the same issue, but print a response that is longer than his original article. It would seem to me America’s editors should swallow their bias and treat a brother Jesuit with greater respect.
Lou Baldwin
Faith in Focus
November is the month for remembering the dead, and with cold weather rendering the lives of homeless people even more difficult, my own remembrance of the dead focuses on a Catholic Worker named Michael Kirwan. The third anniversary of his death from cancer was Nov. 12. I met Michael two dec
Books
Michael Lawler is the director of the Center for Marriage and Family at Creighton University in Omaha Neb and for the past 30 years has taught courses on marriage to Catholic students His publications on marriage and family span decades and include several books on marriage all informed by a c
Of Many Things
Every Jesuit novice is required to make a 30-day retreat, during which he is encouraged to pray for the graces of poverty and humility, for insults and persecutions in the name of Christ and, most important, for growth in love for all, especially of the poor, as Jesus loves them. I tried my best to
The fundamental imperatives of the Christian vocation are two in number: love God with all your heart and mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. The twofold commandment involves loving in three distinct directions: love of God, love of neighbor and love of self. Any Christian spiritu
Books
In his new novel Umberto Eco semiotics professor and the author of a number of essays and novels offers a stylistic tour-de-force set in the latter part of the reign of Frederick Barbarossa Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 to 1190 The core of the novel is Baudolino mdash an unreliable narrator with
Faith in Focus
Just after I leave the church and step into the sparkling sunlight on the way to my car, a woman I hadn’t noticed before comes up to me. A recent widow, she speaks, at first hesitantly, about her faith not helping her when she needs it most. It has been a year since her husband died, and she f
Books
Back in the 1960 rsquo s some angry radicals liked to call their country Amerika the k vaguely hinting that the land of the free and the home of the brave was in fact a cruel and alien place with a whiff or two of Nazism Really angry radicals sometimes spelled it AmeriKKKa Curiously enough En
Columns
Ilive and teach in Rockville, Md. Before Oct. 3, 95 percent of Americans would have been hard-pressed to locate our quiet suburban neighborhood on a state map. But the events of the last several weeks have exploded anonymity. A killer has taken deadly aim—over and over again—and now anyo
News
Joint Group Proposes Draft Revisions to Sex Abuse NormsAfter a two-day meeting in Rome, a Vatican-U.S. commission has drafted proposed revisions to the U.S. bishops’ norms on clerical sexual abuse cases. A Vatican statement on Oct. 30 said the commission’s suggestions would be discussed
Television
Here’s a question about the shows that have debuted during the past few weeks: What’s with all the cop/detective/law/forensics shows these days? C.S.I., C.S.I. Miami, Law and Order, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Crossing Jordan, Judging Amy, N.Y.P.D
Books
In The New Faithful Colleen Carroll a young journalist from St Louis offers a breezy tour through the lives of today rsquo s Protestant and Catholic young adults who practice a traditionalist form of faith They clamor for pre-Vatican II pieties embrace condemnations of abortion homosexuality
To say merely that it was “inappropriate” would be a gross understatement. On a Sunday afternoon in the great Romanesque abbey church of Maria Laach in the German Rheinland, a mother and father with three preteen children strolled down the aisle casually licking their ice cream cones. Al
Books
This book like Richard Schoenherr rsquo s Full Pews and Empty Altars 1993 will be controversial His earlier work was a demographic study that identified the magnitude of the priest shortage and made projections about future trends Since the news was not good some criticized his findings and o
Shortly after his inauguration in January 2001, President George W. Bush announced a partnership between government and “community-serving and faith-based organizations—whether run by Methodists, Muslims, Mormons or good people of no faith at all.” His proposal significantly expand
The Word
Sister Norice our sixth-grade teacher called me out of class and said that the pastor wanted to see me In fear and trembling I went over to the church only to find that a server was needed for an unexpected funeral After Mass Monsignor Nelligan gave me 2 a huge sum in 1943 Going home on the