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The Word
Since most dioceses have transferred the observance of the Ascension to this Sunday preaching on these Sunday readings will be relatively rare Yet they contain rich resources for reflection as the church prepares for the liturgical re-enactment of the coming of the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost
News
U.S. Cardinals Meet in RomeThe sexual abuse of minors is rightly considered a crime by society and is an appalling sin in the eyes of God, said a communiqué issued at the conclusion of an extraordinary two-day meeting between American prelates and the Vatican officials on April 23-24. It also calle
Faith in Focus
Once I finally found the street in the South Bronx for which I had been searching, I almost immediately spotted my destination, a funeral home. From my vantage point inside the car, it looked like little more than a storefront, wedged in between a bodega and an apartment building. If it weren’
Letters
Credit Where Due
In reading through the items in Signs of the Times of your March 11 issue, my eyes went to the picture of the unidentified woman waving the youth day flag at the World Trade Center in New York. And yes, even from the side view I recognized her. She is Francine Guilmette, F.M.A., a Salesian sister, who is the associate director of the World Youth Day Organizing Committee in Toronto, and one of the best youth ministers Montreal has ever had on the diocesan level. She worked many years with me when I was in the diocesan pastoral office and really changed the face of what we call youth ministry. I think she deserves full identification. Much thanks for a superb magazine, to which I look forward every week.
(Msgr.) Francis Coyle
Editorials
When Secretary of State Colin Powell returned from the Middle East, the talking heads speculated that his mission had been a failure. They could make a plausible case. The rulers of the Arab world had refused to make any moves to assist him until the Israelis withdrew from the West Bank. Mr. Arafat,
Books
To what extent would it be meaningful or even coherent to think of the moods and experiences of a human lifeits solitude fears sufferings and joys from birth to deathas spiritual events taking place and reverberating within God Is there not something unyielding about the conditions of life th
Two high-profile projects, the building of the cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles and the renovation of the cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Milwaukee, have shown how high a pitch the controversy surrounding church building and renovation can reach. Some have scorned the cathe
Of Many Things
Every practicing Catholic, if asked, can summon a number of memorable moments (memorable being the operative word) in their liturgical life experience. Lucky for me, these span two time zones: pre-Vatican II and post-Vatican II. I am convinced it was the magic and mystery in the priest’s Intro
Since Sept. 11 the world’s attention, or at least America’s, has been focused on the war on terrorism. One of Pope John Paul II’s responses to this horrific attack was to summon an international assembly of almost 200 religious leaders from 12 of the world’s religions in Assi
The ultimate measure of a choir, cantor or music program is the fervor with which the congregation sings. The Congregation for Divine Worship (1970) instructs: “All means must be used to promote singing by the people” (Third Instruction on the Proper Implementation of the Constitution on
Books
Dava Sobel rsquo s 1999 bestseller Galileo rsquo s Daughter made the 17th-century cloistered nun Virginia Galilei in religion Suor Maria Celeste of the Franciscan order of Poor Clares into a worldwide celebrity Despite its title however Galileo rsquo s Daughter was really about the life of t
In Lake Wobegon land, where I teach, ecumenism is largely a Lutheran-Catholic affair, cemented by the shared sacraments of beer and ice-fishing. My students are not much concerned with the subtleties of the recent joint declaration on justification or with the difference between transubstantiation a
Columns
I have heard the church compared to a dysfunctional family a lot lately. Problems get swept under the rug, silence is ordered from on high, appearances are maintained even when the truth is painfully obvious to everyone. Crisis can make a family stronger, but only if it first acknowledges the crisis
My husband and I are frequently approached after Mass by people who feel compelled to tell us how good our children were in church that day. How do we do it, they want to knowwith four young boys, no less? Some days are better than others, I respond with a grin.Which is true. Some Sunday mornings ar
Books
John Mearsheimer the R Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago has a gift for generating controversy In an address he gave in 1997 to the entering freshman class about the aims of an undergraduate education Mearsheimer argued that Chica
“We are being pressured to participate in non-heartbeating cadaver organ transplants at our hospital, and we don’t think it is ethical,” commented the I.C.U. director of a major medical center. He and his staff opposed the process that removes life-sustaining ventilation from a ter
Culture
For the past several hundred years, since the invention of the printing press and the dissemination of books in fact, the most frequent encounter with the poem has been with what we find on the page. But that is not the way poetry was meant to be experiencedany more, I suppose, than Scripture should
Editorials
Should Mentally retarded people be executed? That the question is even being posed shows how deeply entrenched capital punishment remains in the United States. But this is the question now under consideration by the Supreme Court. The court’s decision will determine whether executions of peopl
Books
Finding quality child care in America is almost every parent rsquo s quest or nightmare Presently 13 million American children out of a population of 21 million are in child care Half of those in child care spend 35 hours or more a week in some facility away from the home One-third of the chil
News
Vatican Summit Seen as First Step in Solving Abuse CrisisBy convening a summit meeting with U.S. cardinals, the Vatican has sent the strongest signal to date that it views the clergy sex abuse scandals as a grave crisisnot just for the dioceses involved but for the entire church in the United States