From Our Archives

On Dec. 30, 2005, the Archdiocese of Portland, Ore., headed by Archbishop John Vlazny, lost an important preliminary round in its bankruptcy case. The diocese now finds itself facing hard choices, as does Spokane’s Bishop William Skylstad and his diocese, which suffered a major legal defeat in

How and why did the massive displacement of almost two million people into camps begin? The government’s forced displacement of most of the population of northern Uganda from the villages in my area, the Gulu Province, began in 1996. It was intended as a way to isolate the rebels—es

Those bright yellow magnets are everywhere: Support Our Troops. Tiny arms looped like an embrace or hands joined in prayer. It’s a simple image and such an appealing one, and yet whenever I see it I get angry.Each day I see the death toll as I read my online newspaper, and sometimes I visit th

Fifteen years ago, one might easily have thought we were entering a new era of peace in the world. The Communist evil empire dissolved so quickly, without nukes or invasions, it seemed that swords might indeed be turned into plowshares. An apparently endless cold war ended. Peace dividends danced in

On February 10, 1931, my father escorted his 16-year-old son from our home in Manhattan to the Jesuit novitiate outside Poughkeepsie, N.Y. At the door of St. Andrew-on-Hudson we were met by a novice appointed by the master of novices to be my personal “angel,” a sort of big brother. His

Almost seven months after Hurricane Katrina, what is the situation in New Orleans? 

There is a bathtub in somebody’s yard in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans. It is upside down, and a barge tossed by Hurricane Katrina through the Industrial Canal floodwall rests lightly, even gently, upon it. Whose bathtub it is, whether they bathed children in it or the family dog, and wh