American bishops discussed research describing changing parish staffing patterns at their national convocation in Milwaukee on June 15-17. The three-hour deliberation considered data showing that the number of priests continues to decline, while parishes are hiring more and more lay ministers. Archb
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Bowling Alone, Praying Together
The jacket of Robert Putnam’s new book, Bowling Alone (2000) has an illustration on the front cover that depicts a solitary bowler. On the back flap is a photograph of the bowling team the author belonged to in about 1955. Putnam takes his title from the fact that although about 91 million Ame
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Am I My Sister’s Keeper?: The Vatican’s New Letter on Sister Churches’
The jubilee year 2000 may well go down in church history as a record year for beatifications and Vatican documents. Despite the frail health of the pope, aides stand actively at attention to help the Holy Father extol holy men, to ban liturgical oddities such as wandering from the sanctuary to besto
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Dominus Iesus and the New Millennium: Different religious beliefs, acts and communities are treated generically, as if their differences do not matter.
Dominus Iesus, published by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, of which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is prefect, is an instruction about the identity of Christ, the integral interconnection of Christ, revelation and the church, and consequently (in the sections to which I restrict my comme
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Catholics and the 2000 Election: Catholic voters are now a looming presence on the fringe of both parties.
The year 2000 elections increasingly look like another turning point in American politics. The old issues that formerly ignited our passionscrime, defense, civil rights, balanced budget and abortionhave all but burned out. Neither party is clear about which new concerns will catch fire, even this la
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Refugees in East Africa: An Interview With John Guiney
What type of work have you been doing with refugees in Tanzania?Our presence in the camps as a team of Jesuit Refugee Service is first of all a service of presenceto be present to our sisters and brothers who are suffering in exile. It must be remembered that the majority of the refugees in all thre
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Where’s the Debate?: What good is a conscience, if it is not informed?
As Jim Lehrer, after 90 minutes of deadly evenhandedness, brought the first presidential debate to a conclusion, I couldn’t escape the fancy that this political campaign was a new television show called, Who Wants to Be a Presidential Survivor? I’m not even sure my idea is original, so f
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The Gifts of Zen Buddhism: An Interview With Robert E. Kennedy
Robert E. Kennedy, S.J., is an American Catholic priest and a Zen master (Roshi). Ordained a priest in Japan in 1965, he was installed as a Zen teacher in 1991 and was given the title Roshi in 1997. Kennedy studied Zen with Yamada Roshi in Japan, Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles and Bernard Glassman Ros
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Why I Kill People
Over the last five years I have killed 11 people. My first victim was a slimy lawyer in Seattle; my last was a misguided evangelist in Yakima, Wash. I once killed a 14-year-old boy. And I shot an old fisherman while he was standing up in his boat, then drove a propeller across his body to make sure
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The Catholic Tradition as a Resource at the End of Life: A Great comfort
* I am really hoping in that experimental chemotherapy. That’s what will beat this tumor!