John A. Coleman

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp This week on May 26 Pat Conroy S J a Jesuit of the Oregon Province is due to be inaugurated as the 60th House Chaplain for the House of Representatives– the first such Jesuit chaplain and only the second Catholic priest to hold the position I knew P

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp Some saint s lives speak to us more tellingly–for whatever reason–than others I have always had a strong devotion to Damien of Molekai Thinking about him on his feast day reminds me of two episodes The only time I have ever encountered lepers was forty years ago

I finally got around to seeing the Spanish film Even the Rain appropriately enough on March 22 which the UN named as world water day The film with a script by Paul Laverty the long-time script writer for Ken Loach s socially intense films is dedicated to the memory of Howard Zinn I was d

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp A month ago while listening to NPR s All Things Considered I heard the writer Adam Haslitt author of the novel Union Atlantic wax eloquent about a 1957 book A Time to Keep Silence more recently re-issued by the famed British travel writer Patrick Leig

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp I heard Cardinal Waltar Kaspar deliver on Feb 21 the 31st annual Paul Wattson Lecture sponsored by the Friars of the Atonement and the University of San Francisco His topic was Hope for the Future of Ecumenism Kaspar recently retired as the long-time Pre

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp I was moved to read in America Father Anthony Ruff s objections to the new translations for the missal Like many I suspect the majority of parish priests I am not terribly nbsp enthusiastic about this so-called reform It seems to me more a kind of nbsp nbsp

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp I was asked recently to serve on the advisory board of nbsp California Interfaith Power and Light one of 36 state branches which sponsor as part of a national network religious responses to global warming due to deforestation gross energy inefficiencies glacial meltin

nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp I finally got around to reading the spiritual classic The Cloud of Unknowing Over the years from time to time I dipped into it but had never read it carefully contemplatively I was moved to do so by seeing a new translation of the classic by Carmen Acevedo Butche