James Martin, S.J.

The New York Times has the story nbsp The United States Supreme Court on Monday rejected a request by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport to delay the court-ordered release of thousands of legal documents from lawsuits filed against priests accused of child sex abuse The decision leaves few

In a bit of believe me entirely unplanned serendipity both America and Commonweal this week have superb articles by American nuns on the apostolic visitation of women religious in the United States nbsp I urge you to read both nbsp Ours by Sister Ilia Delio a Franciscan sister and professo

One of our newest Culture writers is Fr Terrance W Klein an associate nbsp professor of theology at Fordham University and author of the book Vanity Faith Searching for Spirituality Among the Stars nbsp He also wrote last week s review on Mad Men nbsp likening nbsp the hit AMC series nbsp t

St nbsp Th eacute r egrave se of Lisieux or to use the name chosen on the occasion of her profession of vows Th eacute r egrave se de L Enfant Jesus et de la Sainte Face is found on small holy cards that portray her staring out frankly at the viewer clad in a brown-and-white Carmelite robe ty

A few weeks ago on retreat I was introduced to a friendly middle-aged couple nbsp I m a Catholic priest he said nbsp And I m his wife she said nbsp nbsp They prayed among the many priests sisters and brother on retreat but with a difference sometimes after meals you would see them h

H Res 441 In the House of Representatives U S September 22 2009 Whereas the social cultural and political contributions of Catholic sisters have played a vital role in shaping life in the United States Whereas such women have joined in unique forms of intentional communitarian life dedica

Tom Reese took the words right out of my mouth nbsp When I read the New York Times story about Roman Polanski s arrest in Switzerland for having raped a 13-year old girl in 1977 I thought if he nbsp were in a collar there would be no boo-hooing about his recent nbsp plight nbsp nbsp There woul

In an implicit rebuttal nbsp to Cardinal Sean O Malley s presiding at the funeral of Senator nbsp Edward M nbsp Kennedy as well as a more overt rebuke to the Obama administration Arcbishop Raymond Burke addressed the question of how the church should respond to nbsp Catholics in public life who d

Normally on the blog I highlight online content for the Culture section which might otherwise escape the view of the print audience but today I wanted to call your attention to a terrific nbsp piece now on our site and which will appear in this week s issue Fr Robert Lauder s nbsp interview wit

Our online editor Tim Reidy and I are currently battling for supremacy in the contest of who is the bigger Mad Men fan nbsp Here we are on this week s podcast talking about the philosophical and theological underpinnings of the hit AMC show–not to mention the hidden meanings in its name how