It’s All in the Family
What happens across the kitchen table has a far greater influence on whether American adolescents smoke pot or snort cocaine than what happens across the Mexican border. America’s best hope for a drug-free society is in the kitchen, the living room, the classroom and the church pew, not in the
The Hidden Holocaust: An Interview With Bishop Macram Max Gassis of Sudan
Over two million people have lost their lives and over four million have been displaced in the war waged by the government of Sudan against its own people in the south. It is arguably the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in the world, dwarfingat least in terms of casualtiesthe recent crises in Koso
Immigrants in Detention
"End detention as we know it": This was the goal presented at the beginning of the third annual Detention Watch Network conference on Nov. 25-28 in Baltimore, Md. Using the phrase in satiric imitation of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign promise to restructure welfare, James Haggerty, an
Timeless Either-Ors
In my last column, on "millennial moralists" (which yielded a few friendly complaints and started a few arguments, I’m told), I promised a prognostication of 10 ethical challenges for the next thousand years. It didn’t take long to realize how foolhardy such a proposal might be
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
It was barely after 6 a.m. on a Thursday, but already lines had formed at the Greyhound gates on the lower level of the Port Authority bus terminal in New York City. On the longest linefor the 7 a.m. bus to Washingtona baby was crying in its mother’s arms. I was in a nearby line…
Letters
Letters
Good Begets BetterIs it my imagination, or is less space being allocated for letters? The stimulating articles prompt stimulating responses, and I’d like to see more.Christine Matthews, O.P.Toledo, OhioCoffee at the CliffThe article by Paul Robichaud, C.S.P., Tourist or Pilgrim, Rescuing the J
Editorials
Public Schools and Religion
Last spring the 4,400 students at Santa Fe High School, which is part of a school district near Galveston, Tex., voted to elect one of their number to deliver an inspirational message before the home games of the school’s football team. Marian Ward, the senior chosen, was warned by school admi
Books
Tortured Romantic
It is difficult to imagine a more complex and challenging literary life for a biographer than that of Samuel Taylor Coleridge After completing a brief critical biography of Coleridge some 25 years ago as a quot trial run quot for a full-length life Walter Jackson Bate concluded ruefully quot I
The Economics and Politics of Aging
If this book sold only 535 copies and each found its way into the hands of a member of the U S Senate and House of Representatives it would be a great publishing success Bookstore browsers may be deterred by the rather ambitious subtitle quot How the Coming Age Wave Will Transform Americaand th
The Word
A Life Unfolds
Until Ash Wednesday March 8 the Gospels of Lectionary cycle B follow Mark 1 14 to 3 6 Each of the four Gospels has distinctive literary characteristics a particular picture of Jesus and different understandings of discipleship Mark the shortest of the Gospels contains the most vivid and hu
Culture
Images of the Millennial Pope
With a little bit of luck we can trace a certain recent huffing and puffing to a distinguished corps of papal observers desperately striving to keep abreast since 1995 of the spate of lengthy and weighty biographies of Pope John Paul II. More than one Vaticanist has taken great and vicarious pleasur
News
Signs of the Times
Supporting Marriage Is No Excuse to Bash Gays
Cardinal Roger M. Mahony of Los Angeles urged California Catholics to back an upcoming referendum defining marriage as a contract between a man and a woman, but he said they should oppose anyone who will use this measure to promote hatred against homosexual persons. Californians…
Politics
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Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts