In All Things

Robert Ellsberg currently the publisher of Orbis Books has pulled off the journalistic equivalent of a double-play scoring recent cover articles in both Commonweal and The London Tablet The reason After several years of dedicated scholarship Ellsberg has put the finishing touches the first

Our most regular blogger Michael Sean Winters has a provocative article on Slate com on how Benedict s papacy has disappointed neo-cons and theo-cons Here s Winters Three years after Benedict s election as American Catholics prepare for the pope s visit next week those same conser

Some readers may have read A Jesuit Off-Broadway which tells the story of my six months with the LAByrinth Theater Company a New York-based acting troupe who were creating a new play about Jesus and Judas which premiered in April 2004 That play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was writt

To read my previous posts on the Casa just click on my name above This is an appropriate time–during these five weeks of Easter–to think back on our experience of the liturgies of Holy Week Historically this is the season when new Christians just baptized and confirmed reflect on the myst

All this week we have been looking at the various ways politics has been corrupted by the rise of a professional class of campaign consultants They view candidates as puppets the electorate as a market and politics as an exercise in manipulation They induce a state of mind in candidates that re

Today we received a copy of the elegant booklet that includes the programs complete with prayers and readings for the pope s prayer services liturgies and Masses during his American visit There is an especially beautiful prayer for his visit to Ground Zero Also Latinists will be happy that

There are few people who are more excited about the pope s visit than Stephen Colbert who actually has tickets to the Mass at Yankee Stadium as he explains in this clip Mr Colbert as many of our viewers readers know is in fact Catholic James Martin SJ

I recently made a Holy Week retreat at the Franciscan Renewal Center in Scottsdale Arizona known locally as the Casa which is short for La Casa de Paz y Bien The title is descriptive Since this was the first retreat I have made in a very long time I regret to say I was not sure whether to

The culture of campaign consultants and the layer of control it places between the people and their elected officials has changed and diminished our democracy in important ways But democracy is only as good as the voters want to make it If we the electorate put up with air-brushed answers to

Besides our special coverage on our blog and later in the pages of the magazine some of America editors will be assisting with the media coverage of Pope Benedict s visit to the United States James Keane S J will be working with Fox News Radio during the Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium Ji