I was worried about associating with the Catholics, confides a woman at our monthly community meal. But this pasta is good! She asks me to wrap up a plate to go, for her friend next door. She leaves with a box of groceries, two blankets and a stylish red winter jacket.We are here each month to offer

Gail Buckley rsquo s synopsis of African American involvement in the armed forces adopts as its thesis Harriet Beecher Stowe rsquo s declaration in 1855 that blacks have always fought magnanimously and heroically for their country despite its violations of their civil rights To demonstrate Stowe rs

This past June, the U.S. bishops tightened up the ethical guidelines that govern the operation of Catholic health facilities around the country. The revised guidelines require Catholic hospitals to place greater distance between themselves and the affiliate organizations offering sterilization servi

The monstrous terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have prodded the nation to reexamine itself. As America races to combat agents of global terrorism, particularly fundamentalist Islamic extremists, decision makers should proceed prudently so as to build the requisite broad coalition at home and abroad. A

You Americans I was once reprimanded in Paris have little spirituality todayyou have only psychology Americans should not dismiss this scolding too quickly Kevin Gillespie rsquo s informal history of American Catholics and their embrace of psychology helps to put this issue in some perspective O

Top Vatican Diplomat Says U.S. Military Response JustifiedNearly a week into a U.S. bombing campaign in Afghanistan, a top Vatican diplomat said America’s military response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was justified but must avoid taking civilian lives. Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the V

This past summer for once, the talk of taxes around the country was not just about how high they are. It was about how to spend the $300 or $600 in rebates mailed out by the Internal Revenue Service with compliments from President George W. Bush, who signed a trillion-dollar-plus tax bill in early J

From 2001, a warning that the war on terrorism would not be won with bullets alone

Even without the worries related to Sept. 11, we are a people under stress—pressured by the daily grind. How we cope, and to what extent we succeed, is an individual mater. Job security, economic stability, family and health matters usually top the list of stress inducers. No wonder health and

According to Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith it may be heretical to hold that church teaching can learn from experience If so this collection of essays is filled with heresy In the Vatican approach one begins with Catholic teaching Exper

To draft principles and norms of translation for the nearly 800 vernacular languages of the Catholic world is a formidable taska task that should involve the broadest consultation of episcopal conferences as well as liturgical and biblical scholars. The Authentic Liturgy (Liturgiam Authenticam), a 3

Dorothee Soelle is well known for her seminal book on suffering Entitled simply Suffering it provoked much-needed discussion on the relation of theology to suffering In the winter years of a long career as a theologian as an activist in peace and ecological movements as an opponent of every for

It is odd to observe twenty-somethings trying to act like fifty-somethings. Yet such behavior is found among a small percentage of seminarians today, who gather to drink good scotch, smoke cigars and discuss liturgy (or, more often, liturgical abuses). Cassocks and French cuffs are preferred. A casu

What matters most?” is a question for perpetual reflection and revision—unless, of course, one is facing imminent death. “Who am I?” and “Where am I headed?”—questions I posed philosophically in this space just two months ago—suddenly have a ring of pr

There is growing public pressure to charge, try, convict and sentence juvenile offenders in adult criminal courts. This is a misguided and simplistic approach to a complex problem. Proven constructive alternatives exist that can be implemented if the public and its leaders are committed to real refo

Empire Statesman begins appropriately enough by evoking the 1928 September night when a flaming cross greeted Alfred E Smith then governor of New York as his presidential campaign train entered Oklahoma When Smith is remembered today if at all it is for the virulent nativist outburst encount

We’ve had two new grandchildren born in the space of a month. Round, rosy bundles of health, they are welcome additions to our growing family. We are blessed and humbled by the gift of their little lives. Initially, the grandma gig was a frightening possibility, not unlike parenting the first

Leaving prison and re-entering the community pose difficulties for both men and women. Women, however, tend to face even more daunting barriers than their male counterparts in making the difficult transition back to freedom. The barriers, moreover, have been raised several notches over the past few