Forgive my having recourse just aboveto the legalistic idiom. Forgivemy having chosen to pursue a measuredargument, and in such lax verse. Forgiveas well my penchant for ironic tone,for all my insufficiencies—those fewcommitted here, the many others—there.  And now that you are in t

The American activist and pacifist A J Muste once said There is no way to peace peace is the way His maxim is pithy but enigmatic What is the peaceful way and how do you follow it when conflicts become armed and dangerous Most of us simply don rsquo t know It is one of the tragedies of our

It is tempting to assess the modern debate over Social Security according to what any proposed changes will do for each of us personally. But many people, if not most, want a more principled approach to considering what, if anything, needs to be reformed. To these I suggest that there is a solid civ

Christians, Muslims in Bethlehem Hold March for PeaceFor the first time in almost two months Manger Square and the streets of Bethlehem were filled with people after dark as several hundred people participated in a candlelight march to protest Israeli-Palestinian clashes. In the last few months Beth

In his way out the door my husband, Shawn, looks at me with honest concern in his eyes. Are you going to be okay? Yes, I bravely try to assure him, choking back a few tears while holding our beautiful new baby girl on my lap. He is off to work and will drop our two older girls at their respective da

In a sermon preached at Oxford around 1825, when he was still an Anglican, John Henry Newman began by saying that in every part of Scripture it is told us again and again, that to make sinful creatures holy was the great end which our Lord had in view in taking upon Him our nature, and thus none but

Privacy has no enemies Its friends date back at least to St Thomas Aquinas who wrote nemo tenetur seipsum accusare mdash ldquo no one is obliged to accuse himself rdquo Is privacy destined to erode because of the electronic footprints of e-mail the Internet cell phones and the vast amounts of

Charitable appeals reach their full force across the nation about now, as the asking season roars in like a winter gale. Yuletide and year-end tax considerations collide to make a climate perfect not only for marketing U.S. charities but also for the cottage industry of donor guidance that seems to

Everyone knows Christmas is about giving, and who could have any problem with an annual holiday centered on gifts? In a booming economy when consumers are spending, there are no losers; everyone gives, receives and feels good. The atmosphere saturated with preternaturally familiar sights and sounds,

In These Pages: From Dec. 23, 2000

Advancing the VisionIn your cover article, Hurricane Mitch’s Silver Lining (12/2), Dennis Linehan, S.J., sensitively chronicles the collaborative efforts of Catholic Relief Services and others in the reconstruction efforts in the wake of that devastating storm which ravaged Nicaragua. The Cent

Ex Corde Ecclesiae the Vatican document issued by John Paul II on Aug 15 1990 describes the relationship that should exist between the Catholic Church and Catholic colleges and universities throughout the world Even before that document was issued there had been considerable discussion and deb

Many Catholics, perhaps especially among the clergy, continue to be dismayed by the 1994 New York Times survey, according to which over half the Catholics who attend Mass weekly said that they believed that the bread and wine of the Eucharist are strictly the symbolic presence of Christ. (For a rece

It is a truism that Americans spend more than we need to and consume more than we have to. But doesn’t it seem that our desire to consume superfluous goods has lately grown to alarming proportions? The other day, for example, I caught a TV commercial for Fit. In case you’ve not yet been

One thing that no one told me before ordination was that I would start having what a Jesuit friend refers to as Mass nightmares.Mass nightmares are similar to the dreams everyone seems to experience during school years, and sometimes beyond. For example: you’re sitting unsuspectingly in a clas

Martin Marty the church historian and trusted commentator on American religious life has recently spearheaded a three-year multi-pronged national conversation about religion and public life Under the sponsorship of the Pew Charitable Trust Marty rsquo s symposia focus groups and probes of this

When I was a Jesuit scholastic teaching ethics at Rockhurst College (now Rockhurst University) in Kansas City over 30 years ago, a student presented me with a Yuletide advertisement for a new credit card. Its headline: What Gives? Mastercharge. I had spent a class analyzing ads, commenting on the co

More Than 60 Dead in Sudan BombingsMore than 60 people, most of them women and children, died in a series of bombing raids carried out by the Sudanese military on towns and schools in southern Sudan, a missionary news agency reported. The situation is becoming more serious day by day, Bishop Cesare