The statistics are alarming. According to the Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate, a survey in 2005 showed that 42 percent of Catholic adults, when asked how often they went to confession, answered Never.
James Martin, S.J.
The Rev. James Martin, S.J., is a Jesuit priest, author, editor at large at America and founder of Outreach.
Posted inFaith
The Most Infallible Sign
Are joy, humor and laughter considered inappropriate for serious Catholics? If so, why?
Posted inOf Many Things
Of Many Things
Lent? Wasn’t it just Christmas? Catholics can be forgiven for sometimes scratching their heads over the liturgical calendar. While the liturgical year is designed to help Christians follow the life, death and resurrection of Jesus by meditating on the sequence of Gospel readings, sometimes it
Posted inTelevision
America the Beautiful
The Golden Globes used to be the most relaxed of the awards ceremonies. For many years the lesser-known stepcousin of the Oscars, the Emmys and the Tonys, the ceremony wore its raffish air with the pride of a starlet wearing a couture gown. A recent issue of Entertainment Weekly featured Helen Mirre
Posted inArts & Culture, Books
The Monk, the Poet, the Writer
In November 1949 the year after the publication of his bestselling autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain Thomas Merton dropped a note to his old college friend Robert Lax about the latest news from the Abbey of Gethsemani quot People keep writing from India we should start a monastery there
Posted inOf Many Things
Of Many Things
"July," said my sister, Carolyn. And I was amazed. "This year we got our first Christmas catalogue in the mail in July," she said. It was from Lands’ End. Even though Carolyn was driving the car and I was sitting next to her, I knew without looking that we were rolling our
Posted inOf Many Things
Of Many Things
It isn’t often that you get the chance to help a new literary sensation. A few years ago, I got a friendly note from Uwem Akpan, a Nigerian Jesuit who was studying theology in Kenya. Uwem had written an article for America in November 1996 with the felicitous title “Nigerian Roman Cathol
Posted inArts & Culture, Film
10 best films and documentaries about the saints
Films can be a fine introduction to the saints. And sometimes the movie versions are as good as any biography for conveying the saint’s special charism.
Posted inFrom Our Archives
Where Have We Been?
When I left the World Trade Center in October 2001, after working there for several weeks alongside fellow Jesuits and other volunteers, I wondered what would become not only of the physical site but of the people we had met. One ironworker, who spent long days at Ground Zero cutting apart the steel
Posted inOf Many Things
Of Many Things
Now I get it. Or at least part of it. The prospect of not raising children was not a big deal for me when I entered the Jesuits. It wasn’t a deal at all, really. And, over time, while I calculated (almost daily) the difficulty of going through life without one special person to stand by my sid