James Martin, S.J.

Thanks to Cathy Kaveny at Dotcommonweal for noticing this The great church historian Henry Chadwick author of the beautifully written study The Early Church has died at age 87 in Oxford England The obituary from The New York Times is here My favorite passage from that fascinating book

David Gibson former Vatican radio correspondent and author of The Coming Catholic Church and The Rule of Benedict has recently been invited to begin a new blog on Beliefnet Gibson full disclosure a good friend is full disclosure this would be true whether or not he s a friend one of

Above Tim Russert at Boston College in 2004 In the midst of the avalanche of news coverage of Tim Russert s death comes the inevitable reference to his working-class Catholic background his early education by the Sisters of Mercy as well as his Jesuit education at Canisius High School i

For everyone who said What s the big deal when the earlier Vatican document about the Tridentine Mass was promulgated comes a report from Catholic News Service Remember that even if there is and this is debatable not a groundswell of interest on the part of the American Catholic laity

Terry Gross probably the best interviewer around after Tim Reidy of course interviews Ron Hansen about his new book Exiles on her NPR show Fresh Air today See post below Two New Raves about his new novel on Gerard Manley Hopkins and the writing of The Wreck of the Deutschland No

Special guest blogger Stephanie Ratcliffe the magazine s design and production coordinator–who is responsible for physically laying out the magazine–is also a talented artist in her own right A few weeks ago we featured on our cover her delightful image of our Founding Editor John Wynne

Why should a Catholic priest avoid preaching about political issues–Republican Democrat or otherwise–in a homily See what you think about one answer at Beliefnet Hint It s got something to do with whose word he s preaching or rather whose Word James Martin SJ

Here s a smart piece by two of the smartest Catholic scholars in this country David O Brien the church historian at Holy Cross College in Worcester Mass and Lisa Sowle Cahill the moral theology professor at Boston College writing on the policy of denying Communion to certain politicians

In November 2006 in our Of Many Things column I wrote a short column on the remarkable success of Uwem Akpan a Nigerian Jesuit and astonishingly gifted writer who had been included in The New Yorker s Debut Fiction issue in the summer of 2005 Part of my delight in Uwem s success was

On Friday May 30 three America editors including Drew Christiansen S J the editor-in-chief traveled to the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University in New York City to present to Avery Cardinal Dulles S J a long-time contributor to the magazine a small token of the editors appreciati