John F. Kavanaugh

Finally some questions are being asked about the plans to invade Iraq. Strangely enough, the biggest stir has been caused not by the churches or the Democratic Party, but by the likes of Henry Kissinger and Richard Armey. Imagine, Kissinger and Armey, the voices of moderation—although their mo

In one of his better moments last year, President Bush clearly articulated his ethical position on embryonic stem cell research, the principles and evidence his judgment was based on and a considered review of moral stances other than his own. We could use such clarity now, as the president mounts h

It’s the conservatives’ fault. It’s the liberals’ fault. It’s because they wore cassocks. It’s because they stopped wearing cassocks. It’s because Rome is too much in control of the bishops. It’s because the bishops are too independent of Rome. It&rsqu

I think it was in the early 1980’s that I met a fellow Jesuit at a conference on liberation theology and philosophy. As I recall, we were discussing a book I had written, Following Christ in a Consumer Society. He liked its political and cultural analysis, but found my emphasis on the vows, es

As the six-month mark passed since the World Trade Center and Pentagon atrocities, the president of the United States was greeted with heart-warming news. A Washington Post-ABC News poll, entitled America at War, informed us that 88 percent of us support the way the president is handling the campaig

At the risk of being rounded up as a Taliban sympathizer, I propose that President Bush is dressing up a boondoggle for the rich as a patriotic budget, wrapped in the American flag. Be patriotic and buy. Be patriotic and fly. Be patriotic and be quiet. Observing the Enron debacle, one can almost und

The first lines of the famous poem by John Donne seemed to haunt me as I read the final testaments—one of them even recorded on voice mail—of men about to die at the World Trade Center or in the skies above New York and Pennsylvania.The professions of love for spouse and family felt not

As the American memory of Thanksgiving fades and the pace quickens before Christmas, I hold before me a large postcard collage crafted by the Shalom network of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. Two compelling imagesa plume of smoke bulging from the World Trade Center, and a woman, apparently Afghan,

It was chilling to read, to see the pictures. The Sunday New York Times Magazine of Oct. 21 displayed a pictorial interview with five of Jihad’s Women, associated with one of the 100 Pakistan religious schools for Muslim females. (There are 10,000 such schools for boys in the country.)A woman