In All Things

I first heard of St Josephine Bakhita during college when I saw her depicted in a stained-glass window in the main chapel on campus Intrigued by the image I read a bit about her life Born in 1869 to a wealthy family in Darfur she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders endured brutal treatment by

Despite my early considerable fondness for Sarah Silverman the potty-mouth comedian and now star of The Sarah Silverman Show something has always irked me about her meta-humor nbsp Silverman specializes nbsp in what might be temed the mocking of the mocking of minorities nbsp nbsp You la

I am always looking out for good Lenten spiritual reading What I look for especially are books about conversion repentance deeper prayer transformation mdash all core Lenten themes It turns out a Jesuit housemate of mine Dan Kendall S J edited recently some earlier from 1975 lost writi

Here at America magazine various colleagues have already called attention to the rightwing attacks on the Catholic Campaign for Human Development the anti-poverty effort of the U S Catholic Bishops Conference and most recently the attacks on Mr John Carr who has served as the USCCB pointman on

An article in The Washington Post features good news for parents who hope to find Catholic schools capable of providing services for children with disabilites Forty-two percent of Catholic elementary schools in the United States had a resource teacher to help students with special needs in 2008-09

This week online Bill McGarvey of BustedHalo returns to America to discuss this year s Oscar contenders with myself and culture editor Father Jim Martin Will Avatar triumph or can The Hurt Locker squeak out a surprise win What do Up and Up in the Air have to say about detachment and what

We re frequently frequently nbsp accused of being too NewYorky here at America magazine what with all of our Of Many Things columns nbsp about New York and its environs and occasional mention of events that happen at or visitors who frequent nbsp America House our office-cum-residence nbsp

From all reports it sounds like both parties are planning their best impersonation of Madonna the singer not the Blessed Virgin at the health care summit at Blair House on Thursday Her 1990 song Vogue was all about striking the right pose My sympathies are of course more with the President

Israel rsquo s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced that two religious sites in the West Bank will be added to the country s national heritage list The Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel s Tomb in Bethlehem will now be included in a 107m Israeli restoration plan Anyone unfam

New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning has served as a spokesperson for St Vincent rsquo s Catholic hospital in Manhattan since 2006 and he plans to continue this work mdash but from now on he rsquo s doing it for free The New York Post reported that Manning will no longer accept compensation f