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Jodi Zierhut, a parole and probation agent for the Department of Corrections in Milwaukee, Wis., escorts a client out of her office. She has a caseload of about 40 sex offenders. Another agent comes up to her and whispers, I can’t believe he’s a sex offender. Even people trained to think
Letters
Our Own Penance
To add to the tragedy of pedophile priests (Signs of the Times, 3/18), there have been no words of sorrow, no admissions of complicity, no words of compassion from the pope or his Vatican officials addressed directly to the victims (and their families) of sexual abuse by priests. The victims have been stonewalled and ignored. The only thing we hear about is damage to the church.
Pope John Paul II has repeatedly exhorted us that there is no peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness. In order to make just amends, we must begin by doing our own penance at the highest level in the church. Anything less only adds to this continuing injustice that eats away at any credibility we may yet have.
(Rev.) Charles E. Irvin
It began one Sunday in September when we noticed an unfamiliar priest celebrating Mass. The monsignor, who introduced himself as the director of priest personnel for the diocese, had bad news. A family in the parish had filed a lawsuit against our pastor, charging inappropriate behavior toward their
News
Cardinal Law Hears Concerns of Boston Catholics On the verge of tears, a sorrowful Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law told more than 2,500 area Catholics who gathered March 9 to discuss clergy sex abuse of minors, "In my most horrible nightmares I would never have imagined that we would have come to th
FaithThe Word
People frequently ask, “What is the church?” Today’s readings provide foundational images for God’s own people.
Books
Its name evokes peace but Jerusalem is a city in constant turmoil where controversy often turns deadly In 1996 when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the Hasmonean tunnel under the Haram al Sherif the Muslim sanctuary above the Temple Mount more than two weeks of hard fighting between P
Have you heard the one about the confirmation liturgy at which a liturgical dancer presented the gifts to the bishop? After receiving them the bishop turned to the pastor and said, If she asks for your head, she can have it! This allusion to the story in Mark’s Gospel about John the Baptist an
Of Many Things
For two decades, I have taken part in a public Way of the Cross procession on Good Friday. At St. Aloysius in Washington, D.C., the procession began after dark. Moving from the church, we would walk through the surrounding low-income neighborhood, flashlights in hand, following a crossbearer and sin
There is a bitter joke circulating among many Guatemalans ever since the nation’s 36-year civil war ended in 1996: Beware the peace, they chide, because now the government is fighting everyone. Guatemalahalf the size of Idahohas endured some of the most unimaginable human abuses in modern hist
Books
From that moment in October 1919 when his doctor cried My God the President is paralyzed until his last meeting with his cabinet in March 1921a meeting at which he could neither control his tears nor walk steadily even with his caneWoodrow Wilson rsquo s every word gesture and act was directed b
News
Bishop O’Connell Admits Abuse; Pope Accepts ResignationAfter admitting that he had sexually abused a high school seminarian more than 25 years ago, Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell of Palm Beach submitted his resignation to Pope John Paul II, and it was accepted. He said his misconduct has ha
Letters
Vision
Thank you for the insightful article by the Rev. Robert Kress on the priest-pastor (3/11). I have found the model of the overseer to be a useful tool for encouraging pastors to delegate responsibilities to qualified members of the parish. This frees the pastor to be about the equally important work of articulating and maintaining a vision in both pastoral and liturgical contexts.
(Rev.) Joseph C. Doyle
Editorials
One day President George W. Bush was denying a request from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for the U.S. administration to resume its active engagement in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. A few days later he was dispatching retired Marine General Anthony Zinni to try once a
Books
Umberto Eco is that relatively rare phenomenon a public intellectual who plies his specific academic trade as a semiotician but also ventures beyond the ivy cover to pronounce on public issues and to play the critic He is also of course a successful novelist who in The Name of the Rose may have
The Word
Dic nobis Maria quid vidisti in via sepulchrum Christi viventis et gloriam vidi resurgentis Yes tell us again Mary what did you see on your journey I saw the tomb of one who still lives and the glory of the risen one The core of Easter faith resounds through these words from the poetic Easter
Faith in Focus
At the age of 15 I was a girl who made it difficult for anyoneeven myselfto love. My upbringing has been a turbulent ride. There were struggles with anorexia, friends poorly chosen and my parents’ divorce. The only positive thing about me was something that I did not earn. I was blessed with a
As the six-month mark passed since the World Trade Center and Pentagon atrocities, the president of the United States was greeted with heart-warming news. A Washington Post-ABC News poll, entitled America at War, informed us that 88 percent of us support the way the president is handling the campaig
Books
The intent of the authors of Passionate Uncertainty Inside the American Jesuits would seem to be clear from the title Given the relatively uncomplicated prospect of gathering data from a random sample of current Jesuits and from the vast array of documents that guide the direction of the Society o
Books
This is a brilliant complex and compelling analysis of emotions and their significance in personal and social life Like most philosophical writing however it is written in an academically analytical style that will limit its readership This is unfortunate and deeply ironic for Nussbaum is a ma
FaithThe Word
He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave (Phil. 2:7)