On the day before he departed Rome to attend events at Loyola University in Chicago Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi wrote from his Twitter account ldquo Departing for the country of Dickinson Poe Whitman Melville Hemingway Kerouac F O rsquo Connor Salinger Roth Bellow Updike rdquo In 140 c
Judith Valente
Judith Valente, a regular contributor to NPR and "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly," is a journalist, poet and essayist. She is the author of Atchison Blue: A Search for Silence, a Spiritual Home and a Living Faith, named best spirituality book in paperback for 2014 by the Catholic Press Association and one of the three best spirituality books by Religion Newswriters Association. Her book, The Art of Pausing, was runner up for the Catholic Press Association book award in 2014.
Ms. Valente began her work as a staff reporter for The Washington Post. She later joined the staff of The Wall Street Journal, reporting from that paper's Chicago and London bureaus. She was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, first in the public service category as part of a team of reporters at The Dallas Times Herald in the 1980s. In 1993, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the feature writing category for her front page article in The Wall Street Journal chronicling the story of a religiously conservative father caring for his son dying of AIDS.
Posted inSigns Of the Times
Straight Talk on Domestic Violence
At a parish on Chicago’s North Side, Charles Dahm, O.P., finishes reading the Sunday Gospel, the familiar story of a woman accused of adultery who is threatened with public stoning until Jesus intervenes. Father Dahm then launches into a homily that surprises many.“Today I would like to
Posted inDispatches
Encountering the Other in Shakespeare
An ecumenical theater troupe sparks conversation with ‘The Merchant of Venice’
Posted inSigns Of the Times
Amazing Grace in Action
Ever since the days of pioneer homesteaders, the Sisters of Loretto have lived amid the rolling hills of central Kentucky. They taught in rural schools, still operate a corn and soybean farm and offer retreats on their 780 acres of prime agricultural land.The sisters would have liked to continue qui
Posted inDispatches, Faith
Merton As Writer: Echoing Silence
How Merton kept the scales of his two vocations, writer and monk, in balance.
Posted inDispatches
Dispelling Some Myths About Ferguson – Part 2
Local pastor sees “a very diverse community working together, acting together.”
Posted inDispatches
Dispelling Some Myths About Ferguson – Part 1
Religious leaders are helping to heal the city.
Posted inDispatches
Former LCWR President Responds to Visitation Report
Sister Mary Ann Zollmann former president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious nbsp awoke at four this morning to watch on cable the announcement of the Vatican 39 s long-awaited report stemming from the six-year apostolic visitation Zollmann says she was heartened first of all by the
Posted inDispatches
On Eve of Vatican Report, Sisters Reevaluate View of Apostolic Visitation
A process that many women rsquo s religious congregations once viewed as hurtful and intrusive has turned into a tale of transformation for the country rsquo s nearly 59 000 religious sisters That is how several sisters in leadership positions now describe the Vatican rsquo s ldquo apostolic visita
Posted inSigns Of the Times
After Ferguson, Learning to Listen
The shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., exposed long-ignored, long-simmering tensions in the United States. Ferguson amounts to a kind of national Rorschach test on race. Polls show blacks and whites hold decidedly different views about the unarmed teenager’s death.