How should the Catholic Church in the United States respond to what some have labeled the gay agenda? One way would be simply to restate what has been declared repeatedly. This approach, however, may not meet the challenge. The so-called gay agenda has been in the making roughly since 1969, when the

This book honors a 12-year-old martyr by the name of FoyFaith in Englishin the southwest of France during the last of the Roman persecutions in A D 303 Five centuries later in what is called a Furtive Translation or pious robbery her remains were carried off from Agen in the Garonne to the to

George Lucas’s “Star Wars” has spawned a multi-billion dollar industry, including sequels, prequels and a limitless array of paraphernalia. It’s a juggernaut that shows no sign of abating. Few ideas have captured the popular imagination quite the way it has. National missile

Sometimes the obstacles to peace appear so great and so many that to face them seems humanly impossible. But what seemed unthinkable even a few short years ago is now a reality or at least a matter of open discussion. Pope John Paul II offered that reflection on September 18 as he received a new Isr

In the late 1980’s, Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan of Atlanta suffered a seriously debilitating stroke, so severe that he was not able to communicate with anyone around him. Archdiocesan officials consulted the then recently revised Code of Canon Law and followed its directions for what to do

Driving to the university the other morning during rush hour, I was delayed briefly by the motorist ahead of me, who paused to let traffic enter from a side streeta courteous, helpful gesture, certainly. Moments later, in the elevator on the way up to my office, I was delayed once againthis time by

The author of this book takes a simple idea and makes the best of it The idea is to use the tried and true metaphor of the life of faith as a journey on which difficulties chronically deter pilgrims who return to the starting gate over and over McGrath understands well this frustration because he

Theologians Urge National Procedure for MandatumA committee of the Catholic Theological Society of America has urged national review and appeal procedures if a U.S. bishop wants to withhold or withdraw a theologian’s mandatum. In a 61-page report the committee expressed strong continuing reser

One of the interests that I share with my father is a taste for what the British used to call ripping good yarns, that is, stories of high adventure. My father and I are far from alone in our interest. A glance at recent best-seller lists will reveal a surprising number of adventure tales nestled am

On the first Sunday of the new millennium, I went to my parents’ usual church, Our Lady of Good Voyage in Gloucester, Mass. On the second Sunday I knelt, freezing, below the great dome of the Pantheon in Rome and listened to a Latin Mass sung in purest Gregorian chant. On the third, I sat demu

In several serious dramas on Broadway this summer, the good (or bad) angel of uncertainty bedeviled many a leading man. Ambiguity and ambivalence plagued them in at least four plays. From Arthur Miller’s updated salesman in The Ride Down Mount Morgan to Tom Stoppard’s fortyish playwright

Monsignor Jacques Suaudeau of the Pontifical Council for the Family recently published “Prophylactics or Family Values? Stopping the Spread of HIV/AIDS” in the weekly edition of L’Osservatore Romano (4/19). Here we find important signals of what many have suspected all along: that

Many members of the current Congress came to Washington with promises to repeal the federal income tax or at least replace it with a flat tax. It hasn’t happened. They and their Congressional leaders discovered that the federal income tax is too deeply rooted to be ripped out or radically chan

The United States once again holds first place as the world’s biggest arms sellerso noted the recent report of the Congressional Research Service, Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, delivered annually to Congress. Here is a troubling distinction indeed, given the fact that the

Protestants Respond to Vatican DocumentThe World Council of Churches warned of potential damage to ecumenical dialogue following the release of a Vatican document emphasizing the Catholic Church’s pre-eminent status among Christian denominations. What a tragedy if the witness of joint Christia

Back in the 1950’s, when I was a kid in a Jesuit high school, a novel called Mr. Blue, by Myles Connolly, was all the rage. The eponymous hero was a mystical type who combined the social activism of Dorothy Day with the contemplative reserve of Thomas Merton. In short, he made Catholicism cool

Although their day has long passed, the moral theology textbooks in use before the Second Vatican Council were not without a number of enduring merits. These seminary manuals, for example, recognized the need, in establishing the truth of an ethical thesis, to define all relevant terms fully and exa

What caused the war in the former Yugoslavia? Over 15 or 20 years ago we had a feeling that the end of Communism was coming. The whole Medjugorje event was an intimation of things to come. We were happy that Communism was going to end, but we also knew that Marshall Tito’s powerful bureaucrac