Posted inArts & Culture, Books

Willie at War

It has been 90 years since the beginning of the Great War in 1914 longer than the time between Fort Sumter and Pearl Harbor To write about it now is to do history not passionate political attack of the kind Erich Maria Remarque launched in his All Quiet on the Western Front when the war was fres

Posted inFrom Our Archives

Is God One of Us?

Barbara Hall, the creator and executive producer of the CBS television series “Joan of Arcadia,” may have a wider audience than any contemporary American theologian. Most theologians don’t talk about God any more. Sex, race, gender, politics, secularity or whatever are more importa

Posted inFrom Our Archives

A Catholic Vote?

In the aftermath of the U.S. presidential election, a combination of media experts and religious leaders have argued that “religion” and “moral values” have taken on a new importance in American political life. The evangelicals are claiming control of the Republican Party bec

Posted inFrom Our Archives

Children of the Council

The Roman Catholic clergy in the United States report with dismay—and not a little self-pity—that their churches, once filled on Sunday, are now half empty. Some view this decline in Sunday Mass attendance as proof that the Catholic Church is falling apart, and many attribute the decline

Posted inFrom Our Archives

A Bad Day for the Bishops

Feb. 27, 2004, was a bad day for the bishops of the United States. They received little credit from the media or victims’ groups for the study conducted by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on the prevalence and incidence of sexual abuse of children by members of the Catholic clergy dur

Posted inFrom Our Archives

Religious Decline in Europe?

Man bites dog is news. So is the decline of religion. Dog bites man is continuity. So too the persistence of religion. That’s not news. Thus the media are fascinated by allegations of religious decline in Europe, especially because the remnants of modernity expect, even demand, the decline of

Posted inBooks

Prejudiced Still

Suddenly there are two books on anti-Catholicism both of which have the same subtitle The Last Acceptable Prejudice The one by Philip Jenkins purports to describe a ldquo new rdquo anti-Catholicism the other by Mark Massa S J portrays an ldquo old rdquo anti-Catholicism Philip Jenkins

Posted inBooks

Are Things Different Now?

When we were in the seminary our economics professor Ed Roche God be good to him told us one day that his classmates were getting old ldquo I say to them when you start complaining about the young guys it rsquo s proof you rsquo re getting old rdquo Ironically his classmates in those days

Posted inFrom Our Archives

Why?

Hillaire Belloc, an English Catholic writer from the first half of the last century, once remarked apropos of Catholic leadership that any organization whose leadership was guilty of such knavish imbecility must have the special protection of God. As we ride the turbulent waves of the latest reprise

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