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Big Deal for Big PharmaBy a vote of 49 to 40, the Senate approved an amendment that effectively excludes U.S. citizens from importing prescription drugs from abroad. The amendment requires prior F.D.A. certification of imported medicines, certification the administration says the agency is not equip

Atheism and the TheologiansWhen Michael Buckley, S.J., presented a copy of his book At the Origins of Modern Atheism to the late Pope John Paul II, the pontiff asked, And who was at the origins of modern atheism? Without hesitation, Father Buckley volunteered, the theologians. His study is an award-

Adult Believers Over the years “not confusing the faithful” has become an all-purpose bromide for checking theological speculation and reducing the role of theology in the church to elementary catechesis. This policy frequently harmed the authority of the church among educated Catholics

The Court RulesThe latest U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the prohibition on partial-birth abortion is a healthy correction of an earlier court’s overreach in establishing a legal right to abortion. In his opinion for the majority in Gonzales v. Carhart, Justice Anthony Kennedy argued th

Unrepentant MediaWith the announcement by North Carolina’s attorney general, Roy A. Cooper, that he was dropping all charges against three Duke University lacrosse players wrongly charged with rape, a lengthy travesty of justice has been undone. Errors in the case were so egregious, exoneratio

Sin of the WorldSlavery, it is said, was America’s original sin. In recent theological writing, it can also be described as a prime example of the sin of the world, a sin that runs through time and space infecting both persons and institutions. As a new exhibit at the New-York Historical Socie

A Star PhilosopherWith the announcement that the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor will be soon be honored for his investigations in human spirituality, another star has been added to the firmament of Templeton Prize winners. Taylor is an exceptional philosopher, a practicing Catholic much influen

Double StandardsZimbabwe is a failed state. Its strongman, Robert Mugagbe, has ruled since 1980; and his Big Man style of governance has turned a country that was once the breadbasket of southern Africa into a hungry wasteland. He drove off white settler-farmers, allegedly to redistribute the land t

A Report From Los AngelesAnyone lamenting the health of the Catholic Church would have been cheered by this year’s Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the largest Catholic convention in the country, held every year since 1967. This year’s gathering attracted nearly 40,000 pastoral

Noahs DinosaursDuring eight days last September, 16-year-old Matthew LaClair carried a concealed tape recorder to his 11th-grade American history class at Kearny High School in Kearny, N.J. He recorded any comments about religion made by his teacher, 38-year-old David Paszkiewicz. Matthew, whose fam