Dispatches

The outrage at Sandy Hook provoked yet another short-lived cry across the nation for greater restrictions on gun ownership. As in the past, gun lobbyists bided their time and turned to their congressional rolodexes.

“The Catholic Church could do things with political consequences if it coordinated with political leaders.”

The lie of anger is that it liberates us and isolates those who deserve punishment. The truth of anger is that it isolates us and liberates no one.

Today the pope opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, inaugurating the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Saying rural Americans can’t have their hunting rifles is a lot like punishing a whole class because a couple kids are screwing around—it’s not fair and seriously counterproductive.

After Pope Francis opens the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica on Dec. 8, the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council, Holy Doors will be opened in all the cathedrals of the world on Dec. 13.

Father David Kelly is a leading proponent of a concept called “restorative justice.” It’s an approach that includes bringing perpetrators and victims together, and involving their families and community in a joint effort to repair the harm done by a crime.

Opposition to the bombing included that of many faith-groups.

Background checks are important, but to some degree peripheral to the larger issues of the sheer volume and penetration of firearms in American society today.