The Papal Apology
On the first Sunday of Lent of this jubilee year, Pope John Paul II celebrated a solemn liturgy in which he and the cardinals of the Roman Curia who joined him offered a "universal prayer," which had the title: "Confession of Sins and Asking for Forgiveness." This solemn act was
He Lived With Wisdom: Richard A. McCormick (1922-2000)
The death of the Jesuit moral theologian Richard A. McCormick at 77 forces an uncommon sadness not only on family and friends but on the world of scholarship as well. For in his own field Father McCormick has provided a remarkable example of five facets that should characterize the genuine Catholic
Of Many Things
Of Many Things
All things are relative, as they say. With the domestic fuel supply dwindling and neither the president nor OPEC budging from the status quo, we have been told to expect at least a $2 per gallon automobile gas price by June. But then, as a local radio commentator remarked recently, just imagine the
Letters
Letters
A League in SyncJames Martin, S.J., offers a comprehensive overview of anti-Catholicism in America and an excellent analysis of its root causes (The Last Acceptable Prejudice? 3/25). His position that the Catholic League is too overheated, however, deserves a response.Our style is not out of sync wi
Editorials
Politics and Catholicism
Al Smith and John F. Kennedy must be enjoying a good chuckle as they watch Democrats and Republicans engage in finger-pointing about anti-Catholicism. Though at one time being Catholic was a liability when running for national office, now candidates try to outdo each other by professing their abhorr
Faith and Reason
The Millennium and the Papalization of Catholicism
Everyone has been trying to see the big picture. We have been bombarded with a certain type of question. Who is the man or woman of the century—better, of the millennium? What are the happenings in the past thousand years that most changed the course of history?
Books
Forever Faithful
On the way as a guest to the annual meeting of the Chrysostom Society a community of Christian writers that includes novelists poets biographers and essayists I toted along this newly arrived book–oil to Houston perhaps By the time the plane landed in that city I had finished the seven grac
South Dakota’s Sioux
Heroes populate Ian Frazier rsquo s book about the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota Some of the heroes are of his own making others we recognize by name and still others are unique to the Oglala Lakota who live on the reservation All of them are cast against a backdrop of problems
The Unsinkable Agnes Browne
Agnes Browne is a Dublin widow with seven children six sons struggling to see her offspring into maturity in the Dublin of the early 1970 rsquo s It was the time of the first lurch toward prosperity that would anticipate the present era of the Celtic Tiger in which the standard of living of Irel
Reel Theology
At first the inclusion of Brian De Palma among the six directors thoughtfully dissected in Richard A Blake rsquo s AfterImage The Indelible Catholic Imagination of Six American Filmmakers did not seem to fit The other five mdash Martin Scorsese Alfred Hitchcock John Ford Frank Capra and Franci
Triple Redemption
Here are three books about Christian faith each orthodox in content diverse in approach and likely to appeal to different audiences I read them serially in under a month rsquo s time They deserve better Still I tried to imagine some ways in which readers might use these books to great advan
All Coherence Gone
Academic authors occasionally write with verve and color there rsquo s no law against it but when their subject is academe itself caveat lector The historians Jon Roberts U of Wisconsin Stevens Point and James Turner Notre Dame devote a full third of their text to notes and glosses They
A Sense of Sacred
We Catholics are quite a strange lot actually We make the nastiest bigots and the most wonderful saints Of course such a potpourri of human experience could never be stirred by such clumsy tools as doctrine and church discipline No there rsquo s far more to it than that In the hands and throug
The Word
Walking the Walk
The cumbersome title given to this day in the latest revision of the Lectionary Palm Sunday of the Lord rsquo s Passion captures the dual aspect of the liturgical celebration The processional rite of blessing and carrying palms describes Jesus rsquo triumphal entry into Jerusalem in what will be
Columns
De gustibus Non est disputandum
Every chance I get, I read. But why? For many reasons, of course: to educate myself, for aesthetic pleasure, to gather information and, underlying all the rest, out of a deeply ingrained sense of duty. I suppose a sense of duty is wrapped up in almost everything I do, including reading. Like any pro
Faith
The Millennium and the Papalization of Catholicism
Everyone has been trying to see the big picture. We have been bombarded with a certain type of question. Who is the man or woman of the century—better, of the millennium? What are the happenings in the past thousand years that most changed the course of history?
News
Signs of the Times
Pope Preaches Reconciliation and Peace in Holy LandWith slow but determined steps, Pope John Paul II made his long-desired pilgrimage to the Holy Land, preaching peace and reconciliation among the region's peoples and religions. From the heights of Mount Nebo in Jordan to the shores of the Sea o
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Culture
Vatican
Scripture
Podcasts