Between last Thursday and today over 100 emails and phone calls from friends and others plus long hours scouring the press and the Internet have taught me several things about the Catholic church 1 The public mdash including the ex-Catholic public who have slammed the door leaving mdash still
Raymond A. Schroth, S.J.
Raymond A. Schroth, S.J., was the literary editor of America and the author of six books, including Dante to Dead Man Walking: One Reader’s Journey through the Christian Classics and American Journey of Eric Sevareid.
Posted inFrom Our Archives
America at War: Tracking the editorial path of a magazine and nation in conflict
Tracking the editorial path of a magazine and nation in conflict
Posted inIn All Things
My Life As Pope
I want to get this into print before the cardinals go into the conclave because this might help them in their decisions Last night I stayed up late reading Karl Rahner rsquo s 1984 essay ldquo Dream of the Church rdquo in which he is allowed to eavesdrop on a Vatican ecumenical meeting during wh
Posted inIn All Things
Readings: Israel Self-Destruction in ‘The Gatekeepers’
nbsp This was a film experience unlike any other I had experienced Saturday afternoon when I approached the ticket office the SOLD OUT sign flickered up When I returned on Monday I just squeezed in for one of the last seats The film was a grim documentary Since when do documentaries pack them i
Posted inIn All Things
Readings: Why Don’t We Care About Drones?
The bad news truly discouraging is that a strong majority of the American people approve of the government rsquo s use of drones even when their targets are American citizens living abroad While the general figure is 65 percent even among Democrats it rsquo s a majority The Sunday editorial pa
Posted inBooks
Lives Twice Told: The art of biography
The biographer tempts the reader to imagine: This life could have been mine.
Posted inIn All Things
Killer Women?
nbsp Frankly I am not happy with the idea of women in the U S armed forces going into combat Yes I know The New York Times and The Washington Post tell us that they are in combat already And we know from the tabloids that women can murder as often as men But society for good reasons has been
Posted inIn All Things
Readings: The Problems of ‘Father Pat’
nbsp In an article entitled ldquo Dear Editor rdquo in a prominent Catholic magazine a 40-year-old diocesan priest Patrick Sanford writes on what he considers the five major problems among the priests he knows Sanford has just had a long talk with his editor friend prompted by the departure
Posted inBooks
Why We Fight
On Nov 2 by coincidence the liturgical day on which Catholics remember the dead The Washington Post following a practice begun in 2003 printed full- page the ldquo Faces of the Fallen rdquo 45 portraits of the American soldiers and Marines who died in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanista
Posted inIn All Things
Readings: Of Guns and Children
nbsp If good can come out of evil then it has done so with the transformation of President Barack Obama from the sealed-lips on gun control to the saddened eulogist at Sunday rsquo s memorial service in Newtown Conn for the 27 victims mostly grade-school children slaughtered by a gun-wielding